


Strangers on the Front Line

by CorgisAreMySoul



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: AU, Constant Cliffhangers, Dimension Travel, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Pre-Trost, Villain Attack AU, You'll probably hate me for them, and I won't blame you, lowkey comedic writing style, universe swap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-01-07 05:03:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12226317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorgisAreMySoul/pseuds/CorgisAreMySoul
Summary: At first, Midoriya thought he was dead. He'd stepped right into one of Kurogiri's portals, trying to save All Might from the deathly grasp of Noumu. The last thing he expected was to appear in a world of quirkless people. With humanoid giants that terrorized the human race. (Rated M for AoT violence/blood and Midoriya injuring himself... constantly.) AU, Dimension-Hop





	1. Capture

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing, just the plot of this fic. Commence story!

_**SOUND**_  = Onomatopoeia

 _'Words'_ = Thoughts of the current POV character

 _Words_  = Normal dialogue or narration with emphasis

* * *

**Izuku**

All Might was in danger. He  _needed_  to help him. No-one else knew his secret, nobody would help the number-one hero. Only Izuku could help.

And he was running out of time to do that.

That was all that was on Izuku Midoriya's mind as he raced towards the hero-in-distress, going as fast as his incapable legs would carry him. He had left his teacher, Mr. Aizawa, in the hands of his classmates, throwing all caution to the wind when he decided to leap into All Might's life-endangering fight. With the true essence of a hero, he was moving without hesitation or thought.

His peers shouted at him, trying to keep him away from the hazardous battle, but those words fell on deaf ears. It was only tunnel vision for the young man. Only one objective in mind. One thing that wouldn't make him useless to his childhood idol.

"ALL MIGHT!" Izuku cried, panting heavily from the excessive exercise.

_'It can't end here. Not here, not now! We've worked so hard, and it'll all be wasted if it ends here!'_

The hero shifted his head slightly towards the direction of his prized disciple. The man was struggling, but no one noticed. They all believed in him, to the point where they thought he was invincible. They were dead wrong.

All Might was locked in Noumu's steel-like hold. He was struggling with all his power, but his attempts made no avail. His body was being held mid-air by the bird-brained monstrosity, gripping him strongly around his severe injury from years ago. He couldn't move, at all.

"I'm coming!" Izuku yelled at the top of his lungs, rushing towards his idol, teacher, and dear companion.

The green-haired boy made a leap after his last stride, flailing his limbs around as he approached his mentor. He was so close, only a few feet away...

In just seconds, the purple, gaseous villain phased into reality in front of Izuku, completely blocking his vision of All Might.

"How foolish," the villain stated, having no remorse nor interest in his voice.

Izuku blanked out. There was nothing but fear plaguing his mind, his heart racing as if it were on his last beat, his lungs ceasing to inflate as if they were performing their last breath. His body was hammering with fear, only waiting to embrace the terror that would possibly be his afterlife. He stared the swirling, black vortex as it stood inches from his face. The world was moving in slow motion, only heightening his sense of helplessness and dread. What was he thinking? Did he really think he could face off against a full-fledged villain?

There was nobody coming to save him now. Not that it would matter anyways...

_'It seems like I really was useless after all...'_

Izuku glared, completely unblinking, at the face of his death as he passed through the villain's portal. And just like that...

He was gone.

* * *

**All Might / Toshinori**

Toshinori gaped in horror as he saw his heir fly right into the villain's warp gate. He quickly realized his mistake and resumed smiling.

If he was supposed to be the world's Symbol of Peace, then he had to fit the description. Even if it meant smiling through the possible death of his student.

Unfortunately for him, the villain that was covered from head to toe with disembodied hands seemed to notice his momentary distress.

"Oh?" the villain questioned maliciously, "Did that  _disturb_  you, Symbol of Peace?"

"What did you do with that student!?" Toshinori flinched at the notion of calling Midoriya a student. If anything, the young boy have become like family to him.

"Well, you see," the villain attempted to explain, "I have no idea." The strange man let out a few chuckles, "For all I know, he could be on the other side of the Earth by now, being munched on by some wild animal in the Amazon. It's all up to Kurogiri to decide where that plain-looking one ends up."

The man was smiling deviously, the corners of his mouth could be seen on the edges of his hand-mask. His one visible eye was twitching with delight, and his hands were scratching his neck vigorously.

This man was borderline _insane_.

Before another word could be spoken, another student came speeding down the stairs.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY, BASTARDS!"

_'Well... there's only one person with that kind of attitude...'_

This time, Bakugou came rushing at the speed of light towards the band of villains. Immediately, he grasped his hands around the warp-gate villain and set off multiple explosions around the metal plate on the evildoer's body. The man was left struggling against the student's grip, wriggling around like a worm on the clay-stained ground.

"I guess I found your body that time, you smoky bastard!" Bakugou yelled.

Immediately after Bakugou's capture of Kurogiri, a trail of ice snaked its way up the right-half of Noumu's body, leaving All Might an opening to escape the ghastly creature's steel-grip.

"Hmph," Todoroki hummed nonchalantly, "One of your badly trained thugs told me that you thought you could kill All Might."

_'He controlled his quirk so that the ice stopped before touching my body. This is my chance to escape!'_

The well-built man pried himself out of the villain's strong arms and managed to land a jump right next to his students. He was clutching his abdomen tightly, desperately trying to keep the pain from frying his nerves and to hold in the blood that was oozing out of his body at an alarming rate.

The madness only intensified as Kirishima came diving from the air, screaming as he had his arms poised to pierce the hand-covered villain in the chest. Before the man could be impaled by the iron-like skin, he dodged at the last second and avoided extreme injury by mere nanoseconds.

"AW DAMN!" Kirishima cursed, "That was gonna be so cool!"

"W-what?" the gaseous man was still panicking from his unexpected capture, "How?!"

"It was pretty easy to figure out your quirk after doing some thinking," Bakugou tapped his noggin to emphasize. "The only reason I didn't hit you earlier was because you were shrouding yourself with your quirk. At first, I thought you were made of gas, but then I realized," Bakugou set off another round of sweat-fueled explosions around the villain's neck armor, "Your body is being guarded by this piece of armor. Pretty smart, but easy to figure out. Once I got it down, you were left completely defenseless. You're not immune to physical attacks if they're well aimed."

Everyone focused their attention back to the pale, hand covered villain that was staring in shock.

"It's simple," Todoroki stated in his monotone voice, "The Symbol of Peace will not be defeated by the likes of you."

While Bakugou was looking away, Kurogiri slowly moved underneath the boy's palm. Another round of explosions set off.

"DON'T MOVE!" Bakugou threatened, "You try anything funny and I'll blow your ass up so bad that they'll be piecing you back together for weeks!"

"Whoah, that's not very heroic..." Kirishima side-commented, sweatdropping at his classmate's antics.

The group of students with an additional pro-hero stared back at the hand-villain, who was now scratching his neck with a renewed vigor.

"Noumu," the villain instructed, causing the attention of the bird-like monster to be directed towards him, "It's time to free up our escape route."

The beast clawed its way out of the icy tomb, ripping off his arm and leg in the process, barely managing to remain balanced on his remaining appendages. The  _thing_  was screeching dreadfully as its limbs began to grow sinew, muscle ligaments, and bone from the base of its torso. The horrific image of mutilated flesh burned its way into the students' minds, the smell of blood and burning flesh filling the air.

Everyone seemed to internally gag at the sight.

"He's cool isn't he?" the white-haired villain ogled, "His other power is regeneration, which makes him a highly efficient punching bag that fights back. He's meant to rival you, All Might."

While everyone was mesmerizingly entranced at Noumu's healing ability, Toshinori slightly let his guard down. There was no way that the villain could do anything now, right?

Right?

Wrong.

Noumu made a mad dash for Bakugou, somehow managing to gallop steadily on his malformed appendages. It was speeding towards the hot-headed student, its tongue flapping sporadically in the air and blood still spurting out of its unhealed wounds, ready to ram into him with the impact force of a freight train.

_'Shit!'_

All Might sped towards the impending disaster, getting ready to embrace the drive of the monstrosity's attack. Before anything bad could happen to him, Toshinori pushed young Bakugou out of the way. He'd managed to get the young man a good distance away before being ferociously tackled by Noumu.

 _Everything_ hurt.

It was another massive shove right into his weak spot, aggravating his already open wound. He wouldn't be able to last much longer, he was already pushing his limits.

With his scar re-opened, his time was being stretched even more.

_'It's only a matter of time...'_

Toshinori mentally-slapped himself for thinking like that. This was no time to be considering how wrong things could go, he only needed to focus on the matter at hand.

The dust settled down revealing the unnatural Noumu and in its arms was the warp-gate villain that  _had_  been under Bakugou's control. Another cloud of dust floated to the ground, exposing the slightly-battered All Might. The pro-hero had his arms in a defensive stance, gingerly gripping to his injured side.

"These are kids," Toshinori was furious, "And you didn't hold back!?"

"Well," the man supposedly called 'Shigaraki' started, "I didn't have much of a choice, did I?"

Nobody answered his question.

"Ahem~," Shigaraki coughed, "The one with the explosion-quirk was threatening my companion and that plain-looking one from earlier–"

_'Midoriya...'_

"–he was going to attack me at full force! What kind of hero does that?!"

The man started to puff up as he began a 'passionate' rant.

"You know what?!" Shigaraki huffed, "I'm tired of you heroes claiming that you are justice! You can get away with any violent action when you claim it's for the sake of others."

Shigaraki opened his arms widely, leaving his palms facing upwards.

"Why do people get to decide which violent acts get classified as villainous or heroic?," the man questioned rhetorically, "Casting judgement as to what's good and what's evil. You think you're  _really_  the Symbol of Peace? No, you're just another government-sponsored weapon of destruction."

Shigaraki swung a finger into the open air.

"Violence always breeds more violence," Shigaraki stated factually, waggling his finger in the process, "I'll make sure the world knows that once you're dead."

All Might and crew gave incredulous looks to the distressed villain.

"This is ludicrous..." All Might continued, "You're nothing but a lunatic. Criminals like you... try to justify your actions and make them seem noble. Admit it, you're just doing this because you enjoy it. Isn't that right!?"

Shigaraki chuckled and said something under his breath, words that were too soundless for All Might or his students to hear. In the background, the warp gate villain was seemingly antsy and shifted his 'feet' from side to side. He was impatient to do something. All Might didn't know what that something was however.

"We've got them outnumbered," Todoroki stated nonchalantly.

"And  _I_  figured out that mist guy's weakness," Bakugou bragged.

"These dudes may act really tough," Kirishima started, "But we could take them on with All Might's help. Let's do this!"

Toshinori halted the students where they stood.

"Don't attack!" All Might ordered, clearly concerned for the physical wellbeing of his remaining students, "Get out of here!"

"You would have been in trouble if it weren't for me, remember?" Todoroki said, trying to logically sway his teacher's mind, "You  _need_  our help–"

"–I thank you for your assistance," All Might cut Todoroki off, "But this is different. It's gonna be alright..."

All Might stuck out the arm that he was using to clench his wound shut and flexed it out.

"Just sit back and watch a pro at work!" All Might gave a thumbs up to reassure his worried students.

"Hmph," Shigaraki grunted, "Noumu, Kurogiri. Take care of the Symbol of Peace. I'll deal with the children."

_'I barely have less than a minute in this form... my power is declining faster than I thought it would...'_

"Let's clear this level and go home," Shigaraki uttered to his companions.

_'Even so, I have to stop these villains...'_

Then the three villains parted ways almost simultaneously, Kurogiri and Noumu targeting All Might and Shigaraki dashing steadily towards the three unexperienced students.

"Looks like we got company anyways!" Kirishima shouted, instantly hardening his hands into piercing stakes.

_'Because I am... the world's SYMBOL OF PEACE AND JUSTICE!'_

All Might build up an intense amount of pressure in his legs, giving off gusts of artificial wind. The intensity of these squalls were severe enough to sweep the villain Shigaraki and the few nearby students off their feet.

The pro-hero then launched himself from the ground and hurtled towards the currently-sprinting Noumu. They collided in one huge clash, managing to accurately hit each other on the knuckles of their bare fists. Another wave of air pushed all bystanders a far ways away.

"Weren't you listening!?" Shigaraki yelled over the blasts of roaring air, somehow managing to keep himself upright while soaring, "One of his powers is shock absorption!"

"Yeah!" All Might raised his bulky fists once again to deliver a hearty punch to the unaffected Noumu, "What of it!?"

All Might let out a mighty roar as he slammed his fists straight into the abdomen of Noumu, breaking ribs that healed almost instantaneously after the brutal impact. The well built hero then started increasing the speed of his attacks, putting more and more force into each punch that miraculously landed on the opponent's fists like before.

Fists were flying, and they couldn't be seen by normal eyes at the pace they were being thrown at. Even the students were struggling to stand upright and witness the fight.

"Whoah!" Kirishima shouted over the sounds of war, being blown away from the fight an inch at a time, "They're so fast!"

"NO!" Kurogiri exclaimed, looking as if he would be blown away in the artificial tempest that was being created by the fight, "I can't get near them..."

"UGH!" All Might grunted as he stomped his right foot into the solid earth, creating small, forceful earthquakes with the heel of his foot, "He said your quirk was shock absorption, not nullification. That means there's a limit to what you can take, right!?"

With a new footing, All Might took a strategic position in which he could focus on punching his opponent without worrying about being pushed backwards by the opposing force. They continued to volley punches back and forth until Noumu struck All Might's weak spot once again.

Blood came out in a red spurts, the wound severely shortening Toshinori's time in this form. Bellowing from the agony of his injury, All Might began to take steps forward and abandoned his previous strategy of standing in place. Each step left utter destruction in its path, trees and the ground itself getting upturned from the mere touch of All Might's heavy steps.

"So, you were made to fight me, big guy!?" All Might whooped as he kept moving forward at a continuous pace, "If you can really withstand me firing at 100 percent of my power–"

Shigaraki gasped at the hero's words.

"–Then I'll have to go beyond that and force you to surrender!"

All Might once again shifted gear and put more than one-hundred percent of his power into each blow, targeting specifically for Noumu's unprotected head and abdomen.

After another set of punch volleys, All Might finally struck gold. He'd managed to smack Noumu square in the ribs and drive the villain about 10 yards / 9 meters away. The villain was grinding along the concrete floor, creating a gravelly scratching noise as he started to stop in his erratic skidding.

"A real hero..." All Might leaped into the air, raising both his arms above his head to strike his opponent.

Noumu recovered quickly from his non-pragmatic position and started galloping straight towards All Might, finally bounding up on his last stride. He met All Might's altitude and was grasping out for the hero's body.

Unfortunately for Noumu, All Might's reflexes kicked in and led him to grapple the monstrous creature by the chest and send him hurtling towards the ground. Noumu sent a punch in All Might's direction, but it was easily blocked by the hero's sturdy arms.

"...Will always find a way for justice to be served!" All Might exclaimed as he let his whole body fall towards the grounded villain.

His foot was poised, and he was aiming straight for the creature's head. All Might landed the well-aimed kick on the villains head for half a second before Noumu fled from underneath All Might's footing.

Before the villain could escape fully, All Might snatched Noumu by the arm and pulled him into the air. They tumbled and turned in the air, All Might building velocity for his next move. After masterfully maneuvering himself above the awed crowd of spectators, All Might finally sent Noumu hurtling towards the concrete floor.

The villain hit the ground with a crash, leaving a huge crater where the impact occurred.

Almost immediately, All Might met the villain in the crater, causing another set of tremors to shake the ground with his own landing.

"Now for a lesson..." All Might said as the concrete slabs rose from his sudden arrival, "You may have heard these words before, but I'll teach you what they really mean!"

Flashes of light glowed in the depths of Toshinori's soul. As tradition with using One for All at full capacity.

"GO BEYOND!" All Might pulled his right arm behind himself, the appendage itself starting to steam and smoke uncontrollably from the raw power of his quirk.

"PLUS ULTRA!"

Almost like a balloon, Noumu began to inflate when he made contact with All Might's charged up fist. This affair lasted only seconds before the villain was sent flying through the USJ building. The villain only soared freely for a short while before making a seemingly painful contact with the dome of the building.

Even then, the stupendous amount of force that All Might packed into his punch caused Noumu to blow straight through the ceiling, shattering the lights on the side of the dome and causing tremors throughout the building. Every person in the building seemed to take notice of these intense shakes and ripples.

Still, Noumu remained flying. Outside of the dome, there were no obstacles for the villain to crash into, but he did manage to create circular holes in the clouds as he passed through them without much resistance. Before everyone knew it, Noumu was completely out of sight.

It was unfortunate that he wasn't out of mind yet however.

"Back in my hay-day," All Might said, voice slightly weak from exhausting his energy, "Five hits would have been enough to knock that guy out."

All Might put his hand on his chest, clenching his fist tightly.

"But today it took over three-hundred mighty blows!"

All Might took notice of the small stream of smoke coming from his neck.

_'Looks like my time's up. Gotta end this fast...'_

"You've been bested villains," All Might redirected his attention towards the two remaining threats, "Surrender. We all want to get this over with quickly."

_'I'm big-talking this... I couldn't beat them now. I don't have the strength...'_

"H–he," Shigaraki said inaudibly as he began scratching with a deep potency, "He  _cheated_."

"What's wrong?" All Might pushed, "Not attacking me? Didn't you say you were 'going to clear this level' earlier? Then why don't you attack me... if you dare!"

_'I can't fight them, that Noumu guy took too much out of me. One more move... and I'll be forced to go back to my weak form. I just have to keep stalling until the other heroes get here. If I can...'_

Kurogiri jolted in place, finally finding the time to do whatever he had been so fidgety about earlier.

The warp-quirked-man leaned towards Shigaraki and whispered something inaudible to All Might and company.

"Hmm?" Shigaraki hummed curiously, clearly interested by what his companion had to say, "Alright... then it's best we look into this now."

Although the man looked as if he wanted to strangle All Might right where he stood, Shigaraki did something that surprised almost everyone in the room.

"You win, All Might."

All Might raised a battered eyebrow, questioning the reasoning behind this surrender and what his companion must have said in order to sway Shigaraki's opinion.

"But," the villain remarked, "We'll be back for you."

"Retreat," Shigaraki whispered to Kurogiri, signaling for him to teleport him their subordinates back to the bar.

One by one, unconscious baddies began to sink into black portals that appeared beneath them. Where they went nobody knew, but All Might was panicking.

He needed to keep these two occupied before reinforcements arrived, and he was just standing there. Allowing them to escape.

The worst thing was that he could only watch.

"In the mean time," Shigaraki chuckled madly, "Why don't I practice on one of your pupils, All Might?!"

Shigaraki charged for the three bystanding students, aiming for Bakugou in particular.

"You... YOU!" Shigaraki screeched madly, "I can't let YOU live after what you were able to do today! You're going to pay for taking down Kurogiri!"

The villain raised his hand as he got closer, rapidly approaching without any halt from All Might.

_'Crap!'_

All Might trudged towards his students, completely unable to keep up with the spry villain due to his massive disability at the moment. His legs continued to sag behind as he could only watch.

**_BANG!_ **

Shigaraki paused in his steps. He was staring. Not at anyone in particular, but at his own appendage. His hand.

There was a bloody, steaming hole in the palm of his outstretched hand.

"W-what?"

"Sorry everyone!" a small approaching figure said loudly, "I know we're a bit late–"

_'They're here!'_

"–But I got the teachers here as fast as I could!" the figure finished, turning out to be Principal Nedzu with the whole board of teachers in tow.

"I FULFILLED MY DUTY AS CLASS REPRESENTATIVE!" Tenya Iida shouted at the top of his lungs, not much louder than his normal volume, "AND BROUGHT REINFORCEMENTS!"

The USJ center quickly turned into a war-zone once again as the remaining villain-underlings began to fight back against the heroes. Their efforts were in vain of course, they were completely outclassed by the pro-heroes.

"Aww man," Shigaraki complained as if he just lost a simple game, "The pros are here... it's game over for real this time. Let's go home and–"

Shigaraki was interrupted by multiple bullets to his arms, legs, and torso. Immediately, he jolted and collapsed from the impact. Kurogiri moved to shield his partner from the barrage of ammunition, preparing to send himself and Shigaraki back to wherever they came from.

Kurogiri was about to teleport them when his ghostly body began to drift towards the entrance of the building. It didn't take long for himself and Shigaraki to notice the hero Thirteen using black hole to pull them in.

Shigaraki took this moment to say his last parting words to All Might.

"I may have failed to kill you this time," Shigaraki said, staring wide-eyed at the hero in question, "But your days are numbered!"

All Might responded with a weak cough that caused a small amount of blood to gush from his mouth.

"All Might, Symbol of Peace," Shigaraki wailed, "I am going to kill you!"

And just like that, he was gone. The hero Thirteen lowered his hand in despair, as he failed to capture the two villains leading this ungodly attack.

Toshinori couldn't hold it any longer. His muscular body evaporated as he turned into his skeletal self. Fortunately, he was shielded from the students by the wall of dust and smoke from his transformation.

The faint sounds of footsteps made themselves louder and louder with every distinct *clap* against the ground. With a small turn of his head, Toshinori noticed that it was Kirishima running towards him.

_'Ahh, Kirishima. I'm glad to see that he's looking out for me... wait. OH CRAP WAIT! If he comes over here, he's gonna learn my secret! NOT GOOD!'_

Another wave of luck blessed Toshinori that day, as Cementoss arrived seconds before any disaster could occur and saved Toshinori from the massive explanation and cover-up that he would have to perform in order to uphold his reputation.

"For your safety, please stay back young man," Cementoss said smoothly, managing to cover up Toshinori's scrawny form, "Join your classmates at the front gate. Leave the injured to us, we can take care of them."

"Huh," Kirishima blurted, "Well, all right!"

Kirishima redirected his attention to the other classmates.

"Hey guys!" the others turned their heads towards him, "Cementoss says that we gotta wait by the entrance or something!"

Toshinori let out a breath of pure and heartfelt relief.

"Ugh," Toshinori grunted, trying to lift himself off the ground, "Thanks for that Cementoss, you really saved my butt there."

"My pleasure," Cementoss said, "I'm actually a big fan of yours. Anyways, we should sneak you out of here and get you to the nurse's office. This could have turned out disastrously All Might, and you know it."

"Actually," Toshinori frowned, "It did."

Cementoss frowned. It couldn't have been good.

"There weren't any casualties, were there?"

"No!" Toshinori said almost immediately, "No, no. There weren't any casualties. But–"

"Well then I suggest you put whatever happened in the back of your head and focus on your health at the moment."

Toshinori sighed.

"Alright."

* * *

**Toshinori / All Might**

Toshinori had been escorted to the nurse's office with the help of the other pro-heroes. His companions did everything possible to hide him from the students and the police force took the assistance from there.

He was now hooked to an IV drip, being examined excessively by Recovery Girl.

"I can't be sure yet, but I think I shortened my limit again with that fight," Toshinori sighed, "I'll be lucky if I can even hold that form for an hour."

Recovery Girl just frowned in response. There weren't words to be said about this. This was just a fact that no-one wanted to hear.

Before anyone could say another word, Naomasa Tsukauchi, the lead detective of the underrated police department, burst through the door with a clipboard and pen in hand.

"Gah!" Toshinori coughed out blood in surprise at his old friend's spontaneous appearance.

"Hey," Naomasa waved, "No need to have a heart attack! It's just me."

"That's exactly  _why_ I had a heart attack."

"Oh."

They sat in an awkward silence for a few moments before Recovery Girl cleared her throat and began typing up medical records on the computer situated in front of her.

"Erm," Naomasa tried to pick up the conversation again, "Can you tell me what happened? Can you tell me about any injuries or, god forbid, casualties?"

"Yeah," Toshinori breathed, "Luckily, no casualties among the students or heroes. No major injuries either, as far as I could tell..."

"Well it seems like everything went well for–"

"But there was one thing that happened"

Naomasa directed his attention to Toshinori.

"A student has been captured," Toshinori said gravelly, "And it's all my fault."

* * *

**Kurogiri**

Kurogiri patiently stood behind the bar table, gently wiping the fragile glassware in his hands. He made sure to be careful to not chip the glass, as that would completely ruin the delicate piece of table-ware.

As he was calmly exerting his anger and frustration through cleaning, Shigaraki was throwing a tantrum. The man-child was throwing chairs, bottles, tables, and glasses that Kurogiri had not yet cleaned.

"Ugh! Shot in both arms  _and_ both legs! Almost all the underlings were wiped out and Noumu was captured!" Shigaraki grunted as he overturned yet another table, "Why did you have to rush us out of there!? We could have killed him and walked out of there without losing anything!"

"I'm afraid that this was important," Kurogiri calmly stated, "This could be an alternative to actually killing the Symbol of Peace."

"Well," Shigaraki calmed down almost instantly, "I'm waiting. You stopped our attack for this, so it better be something worthwhile or Sensei will punish you in particular."

Kurogiri cringed at the thought of punishment. Sensei was a scary, scary man. Not one to be tussled with.

"Alright," Kurogiri started, "Let me explain."

"Please do take your time," Shigaraki exclaimed sarcastically.

Kurogiri chose to ignore his friend's statement and explain.

"Do you remember the plain-looking student from the attack?"

"The one with messy green hair, right?" Kurogiri nodded to affirm his companion's assessment.

"I believe I was able to warp him to a place out of our world..."

* * *

**Izuku Midoriya - After Warp**

Immediately after passing through the villain's portal, Midoriya rolled down the face of a steep hill like a bowling ball down a bowling alley and slammed straight into the foot of the hill face first. He laid there for a few moments, pondering whether or not this is what the afterlife looked and felt like.

It felt kind of...  _uncomfortable_.

As soon as he started to feel the mild concussion in the frontal lobe of his brain, he realized that he was not in fact dead, but alive. He scrambled to his feet almost instantly, clambering along the path he was thrown down.

The villain's portal was still open, he still had a chance to get back to the USJ and help All Might!

Midoriya began to panic extensively when the portal initiated the process of squeezing shut. He gave up trying to run normally and funneled a small bit of One for All's strength into his big toe.

He bolted off, leaving dead leaves and overturned turf in his wake. Due to One for All's intense power, he was able to approach the portal at a much, much faster rate.

Yet, even with the use of his fantastical quirk, he did not make it. The warp gate suddenly slammed shut, not to be seen again afterwards.

Midoriya skidded to an abrupt stop and collapsed on his knees, lamenting the loss of his only way home.

_'What... what do I do now?'_

Fortunately and unfortunately, his question did not remain unanswered for long. The ground began to shake violently every second or so, indicating that there was something huge nearby.

Midoriya, the oblivious personality that he is, waited to see what the noise is. He took a small amount of time to notice that he was in a forest clearing, surrounded by colossal trees about a hundred times his own height. Midoriya wrinkled his nose. The scent of pinecones was invigoratingly strong in this place.

After a few minutes of waiting, a large, humanoid head peeks through the treetops. The huge beast glared down at him with beady, black eyes. It had the appearance of a human, or at least something human- _like_ , but an ample amount larger.

_'Are they friendly? Maybe their quirk is gigantification like Mount Lady! I'll just ask them nicely where I am and maybe they'll help me out of here... yeah! Ok Izuku, don't mess this up, don't mess this up...'_

"Hello–"

The giant creature howled at Midoriya where it stood. The creature's breath blew Midoriya's messy hair all around before it abruptly stopped and left Izuku staring in utter fear with his mouth hanging wide open.

_'Did I really screw it up that quickly?'_

The gigantic man-beast began taking slow steps towards Midoriya, grunting its hostility towards his general direction. It's pace then tripled spontaneously and sent Izuku into another adrenaline fueled panic attack. Midoriya did the only sensible thing a person in his position would have done.

He lifted one leg, pivoted around on his heel, and took off running in the other direction, screaming his head off in a very un-manly manner.

"NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE–"


	2. Revelation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woopsie, misunderstanding by some. This isn't the only version of this story, it's been pre-written and posted on another site, my main account. This is for crossposting sake. Don't own anything but plot, commence chapter!

_**SOUND**_  = Onomatopoeia

 _'Words'_ = Thoughts of the current POV character

 _Words_  = Normal dialogue or narration with emphasis

* * *

**Izuku Midoriya**

Izuku was in a pickle. Not just any pickle.

A sour pickle. One that left a bitter aftertaste in your mouth even after you'd finished chewing and swallowing.

He was currently shrieking like a little girl on a rollercoaster and sloppily, yet rapidly, plunking one foot in front of the other on the loose dirt.

There was also a 9 meter man-beast chasing him. He still had no idea what he'd done in order to feel the wrath of the giant, naked man, but he wasn't willing to stop and find out by asking.

Hell no, he was running for his life goddamnit.

The thick trunks of the cypress trees flew by Midoriya's body, he himself not paying much attention to the plant-life because of his current predicament. Leaves were being crunched mercilessly by his feet as he hopped from heel to heel, the occasional twig snapping under his weight and making him flinch once more at the thought of his bones being crushed in the same disturbing manner.

He was way outsized by the huge humanoid creature, that was obvious. What he wasn't sure about was whether he was being overpowered or not...

He inhaled sharply through his nostrils and turned his head an almost 180 painstaking-degrees to the right. He continued to run in the same direction, only his face was facing the huge man as he dashed forwards. He had a small idea of where he was going, but his attention was still focused on his pursuer. It took all his instincts to keep him from slamming into a tree like an idiot.

Now that he was situated to face the creature that was pursuing him, he was able to see how absolutely hideous it was. Its eyes were bulging out of its sockets, unnervingly staying glued to Midoriya's small and considerably muscular figure. The screeching humanoid also had flowing long hair that surprisingly didn't obscure its view of Midoriya: its prey. It bore an uneasy smile, its gums overlapping with its hideous lips creating a consistently open mouth. That mouth chomped at him every few seconds, signaling an unjustified hunger for Izuku's flesh.

Midoriya swallowed nervously.

It was perambulating in an odd fashion that Izuku probably would have laughed at if he wasn't running for his life. The long-haired giant was skipping with its hands raised in the air, almost looking as if it were bounding peacefully through a field of flowers with a basket in its hands.

Most noticeably however, Midoriya could not tell the gender of the creature that was stomping at him like it was late for its 5-o'-clock meeting. Mostly because it didn't have anything down  _there_...

Midoriya shook his head and recovered from these useless thoughts.

_'They've only been hostile towards me and I doubt they'll suddenly apologize for it... that's it. I gotta do something about this...'_

"HEY!" He stopped running away from the creature, moved his body to face the behemoth completely, and ran towards the dangerous beast, ducking underneath the giant's two colossal legs and skidding to a stop behind the creature's back. "I'm sorry about what I'm going to do, but I have to do it to survive," Izuku whispered lightly, legitimately feeling for what he was about to do to his pursuer.

The giant human barely had any time to respond to its prey's sudden action. It began to rotate slowly, its weight suddenly delaying it tremendously.

_'Looks like they can only run fast if they're going in a straight line...'_

Midoriya tucked away this piece of information and focused One For All into his right arm and expended his other big toe on reaching the colossal creature's tailbone.

He grabbed the creature's rough, oily skin and gripped tightly with his left arm until he had a decent hold on the scaly rind. Finally, he swung his charged up fist straight into the creature's spine once again, being much more forceful this time around and not nabbing its skin either.

Right as Midoriya lost his grip on the creature's ghastly skin, the huge beast was sent flying towards one of the cypress trees, slamming straight into the wooden surface with a sickening grind and crunch. Midoriya started to shriek once again as he dropped promptly to the ground, barely avoiding injury by bracing with his hands and knees. To his astonishment, he landed square on his feet without punting his knees beyond the point of usefulness.

_'Phew... that was too close...'_

Immediately, he redirected his attention to the huge person-like being. He was instantly plagued with a feeling of grief.

"A–Are they d–dead?" Midoriya stuttered on every word, uncaring that he was speaking to nobody at all and shaking vigorously with the thought of becoming a murderer. The huge creature was lying lifelessly against the hollow tree, skin blistered and raw around the area where Izuku punched him and spine displayed for the inhabitants of the world to see. Blood was spraying out of the supposed corpse like a fountain, evaporating immediately once it made contact with the warm, moist earth. Burnt flesh was the only scent permeating Izuku's nostrils, causing him to choke instantaneously and pinch his nose shut.

Almost as if out of a nightmare, the supposed corpse began to smoke and steam violently. The body was twitching with agony, screaming and howling in different pitches every second. The deafening screeches caused Izuku to quickly clasp his ears shut, even with his blistered and bloody arm, and squint his eyes closed. He whimpered as his ear drums assaulted his nerves with every kind of pain imaginable.

Suddenly, the jolts that reaped the giant's body stopped and all movement ceased. The smoky haze that surrounded the creature's backside faded away to reveal a perfectly untouched, unscarred back.

Izuku's jaw was slack. What. The.  _Hell_.

How on  _earth_  did it recover from that hit? As glad as he was that they weren't dead, he had been hoping that they would have been at least incapacitated for a short while.

The huge, man-like figure began to rise, first leaning all its weight on its two hands and then re-stabilizing itself on its gargantuan feet. Almost like lightning, the giant turned its face to Midoriya and shot him a look of discontent. It was merely  _pissed off_  about getting drilled in the spine. It let out a deep, guttural roar and began to chase poor Izuku once more, running at an even faster pace than before.

_'OH CRAP!'_

Midoriya squeaked in fear and took off running once again. His arm was broken from the one-time use of his quirk, completely obliterated and crusted with delicate flakes of blood around his abused knuckles. It flapped around uselessly, sagging behind his dashing body. He was gasping for air, the previous punch had took a lot out of him, and his broken toes were messing up his steps. He could only keep this up for so long...

So he decided. Rather than sticking around and waiting to become possible giant-human-chow, he was going to escape into the trees. It was quite possible that if he could get up high enough, then he'd be safe from the wrath of the long-haired, vengeful giant.

He took another chance with fate and relinquished the use of another of his limbs to One For All. The quirk exchanged his left leg's wellbeing for raw power and speed. In milliseconds, he was soaring upwards, drifting slightly towards the branches of a nearby tree. He used his good left arm to latch onto the thick branch and hoisted himself up with his shoulders to keep his face inches above the cold wood. He continued to hang on the tree branch, slinging his arm around the doltish tree appendage. He was relatively stable, but still not out of the woods.

But just then, another horror became reality. He was  _slipping_. Fast.

_'OH MY GOD, I'M GONNA DIE HERE!'_

Midoriya's face was streaming with tears, the possibility of death gripping him at that moment. His Mom, his friends, All Might... they'd all lose him.

Just because he fell off of a tree and was chomped up by a spiteful giant.

He desperately lifted his right leg above his head, trying to pull himself above the branch using his foot as a sort of hook. His heel were grating against the wood, losing its hold on the tree's offshoot every time he thought he got a decent hold.

_'Almost there...'_

Midoriya was hissing in agony as he strained his muscles, making his leg perform actions it had never even attempted to do before.

Another swing at the branch.  _Miss._

Another. _Miss._

Another grave attempt. _Miss._

The last of his fingertips were grazing against the cold wood, screaming for release. His body was shutting down, his energy completely gone.

There was only room left for one more swing with his body, and he put every ounce of thought and spirit into the last swing. He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the utter pain that would be his demise.

_Swing..._

_**CLUMP!** _

Midoriya opened his eyes to a sight of utter relief. Izuku got a solid hold on the tree's bark, barely making it by sticking the heel of his shoe into a knothole in the thick branch.

He was finally able to hoist his whole body above the branch and release his weight onto the tree. His arm and leg were screaming at him in pain while the other two injured limbs remained completely numb with shock. It was a temporary close to the nightmarish ordeal, hopefully one that would discourage the beast below.

The gargantuan was continuously clawing its hands at the base of the tree, growling ever so slightly with each heart-wrenching scrape against the solid bark. Izuku's nerves were still fraying from the adrenaline fueled chase and the near death experience, but he knew he was relatively safe from the humanoid figure. The  _thing_  couldn't reach up to where he was, an unsettling 50 meters from ground level.

He still wasn't trusting of the tree, gripping onto its sturdy branches with gusto. His broken leg and arm were dangling from the elevated safe haven, tempting the furious giant at the foot of the tree. They were numb, broken.  _He_  was broken.

The gravity of his situation finally hit him.

What would he do now? What  _could_  he do now? He was stuck in a place that he wasn't familiar with, not even sure that he was anywhere near civilization.

He could go the rest of his life without finding a single human being if he was that remote. There was only one thing to do,  _move._

Unfortunately, that was clearly an impossibility in his current situation. It wasn't exactly the best idea to try and bargain with the irate monster at his tree's front door, and he wouldn't be able to go very far with two of his limbs out of commission.

It was hopeless, utterly forlorn. All he could do now was sit and wait.

He clawed his way to the base of the branch, lifting his torso up and leaning his entire upper body against the topmost trunk of the tree. Even at the tremendous height, the trunk was still over 5 meters in diameter, too big for him to completely wrap his arms around. It was exceedingly terrifying to be this high up, but it definitely was heavenly compared to the hell-like below.

A fearsome roar shook Midoriya out of his peaceful thoughts, bringing him back to the real world. Or at least what he  _thought_  was the real world.

The beast below wasn't giving up, still scratching at the tree. It didn't seem like it would back off without at least something to compensate for its effort.

_'Hmm... I could be here longer than I thought...'_

He couldn't wait here forever, but he could definitely wait out the next few days if necessary. After that, he'd either starve to death, fall off the branch, die of dehydration, or the thing clawing at the tree may figure out how to climb it. He wasn't going to wait for that to happen.

_'If they leave within a few hours, I could definitely get down... wait...'_

Izuku nearly slapped himself in the face. He definitely wasn't thinking when he did this. How could he even get  _down_  from from the tree? He had so carelessly jumped to safety that he epically failed to realize that there was no way to get down without having all his limbs. So he was stuck here, for at least until his arm and leg were completely healed.

That could take months. He was  _doomed_.

There wasn't any point in sulking about it, so Izuku had to be productive. He needed to start thinking of ways to get out of this without dying.

_'Let's see... if I wait this out until night, the giant might go to sleep by then... if they even sleep at all.'_

Midoriya took a glance at the creature once again, noticing its slight weariness after chasing him for so long. He then directed his line of sight straight into the sky.

_'It's about sunset where I am... I could definitely take a nap or wait this out. Still, I gotta figure out how I'm gonna get down from here.'_

Midoriya chose the better option of taking a nap for a few hours, just to replenish some of the energy he burned because of his obliviousness to this creature's hostility.

He would  _never_  make a mistake like this again. If he saw another  _thing_  like this, he was going to book it.  _Immediately._

Midoriya took off the mask from his gym costume, the fabric still soaking wet from his sweatiness.

 _'Eww... I'm even disgusted by myself!'_  He thought as he held up the disgusting elastic and fabric.

He tried to ignore the dampness of the stretchy cloth as he ripped apart the mask with his teeth and used the elastic to bind his right leg to the branch, just in case he were to start drifting off the tree while he was unconscious. Once he was done tying the appendage, he gave it a quick yank with his hands to ensure his safety.

He positioned his body over the branch, hugged the tree with his good arm, and passed out from pure, unadulterated exhaustion. He slept like a log.

* * *

**All Might / Toshinori**

Toshinori was sitting in Principal Nedzu's office, carelessly leaning on a chair while his arched back was slumped in defeat. The Principal was using his plug-in stove, boiling water for tea. They were previously arguing about the same thing for hours until Nedzu offered some tea out of the blue.

_'I suppose he's just as tired as I am about arguing this...'_

"Look," Nedzu said comfortingly.

_'Never mind...'_

"It's not your fault that your personal student went missing. If I had been faster to bring the faculty over, then this disaster would have never even happened."

Toshinori gave a sideways glance to the tiny rodent-man.

"He was my responsibility," Toshinori said bluntly.

"My goodness!" Nedzu exclaimed, losing whatever patience, and sanity, he had left, "You need to have a little compassion for yourself!" The Principal put his stubby little arms on his hips, his tiny suit getting a little stretched with the unusual movement, "It wasn't your doing, was it?"

"No," Toshinori sighed.

"Then it wasn't your fault."

Toshinori just stared in response.

"Honestly, Toshinori," Nedzu began to pour a cup of tea with the kettle from the heater, "You can't expect to save everyone you come across. There's always bound to be an outlier, an unaccounted disaster that hits you by surprise. Nobody can blame you for not being prepared for that kind of thing."

_'He's right... goddamnit, he's always right. Is it really my fault that this happened, or was it just plain heroism driving Midoriya to try and save me?'_

"Nonetheless," Nedzu reassured as he placed the cup of tea on Toshinori's coaster, "Naomasa will probably find out where these villains are hiding him soon. I trust him as much as you do, Toshinori."

"Still," Toshinori glared at the tinted water, seeing his distorted reflection wobble around, "What if they find out about Midoriya being my successor? What if we don't find him at all?"

"I'm afraid there's always that possibility," Nedzu stared at the ground for a moment, clutching the kettle with his paw. He then raised his head and smiled.

"Still," he beamed, "There's always hope for the future when you're in our shoes. These villains will never understand the true meaning of being a hero, nor will they ever triumph because they think themselves better than us. We've always been on the right side of justice, protecting people where it really matters, giving them the hope they need. If we really are heroes, then we'll prevail."

Toshinori smiled with that, having been reminded why he believes in Midoriya, in his students, in his colleagues. Why he believes in himself.

_'He definitely knows how to lighten the mood.'_

"So cheers, Toshinori!" Nedzu held up his slightly smaller tea cup, "To being heroes."

They clinked cups and drank heartily, the tension from earlier dying down with pure hope replacing it.

_'Izuku, wherever you are... I hope you're okay. We're coming for you.'_

Toshinori clenched his fist, the frail veins poking out of his tender skin. A smile protruded his face, eyes shining with determination.

_'No matter what happens.'_

* * *

**Izuku Midoriya**

_'It's... warm.'_

Midoriya opened his eyes wearily, squinting at the warm light beaming at his eyes. He heard fire... and  _voices_. He stayed quiet, straining to hear what the voices were saying.

"...and you found him in a tree?"

Izuku's eyes widened. Someone found him. He was saved! Yet, he stayed quiet, something about this encounter bothered him. That tiny voice in the back of his mind was urging him to doubt these people.

"Yep," a second voice replied, looking like a shadow against the small campfire, "He was conked out. Didn't even wake up when I slapped 'em hard."

_'H–He slapped me!?'_

He didn't know how to react to this new information, but he calmed himself quickly. He didn't want to give them the idea that he was awake. The ambers from the fire drifted into the air. The nice smoky, woody smell was thick, giving Izuku a feeling of coziness. It was too dark to see anything but the fire and the two shadowy figures slightly illuminated by the gentle flickering light.

"Must sleep like a log, that kid."

"Yeh."

"So," the first voice started, scratching his cheek irritatedly, "What are you gonna do with him?"

"Eh... maybe we could try and recruit him?"

_'Recruit? Who are these people!?'_

"Damn idiot!" the first voice replied, his figure slamming a fist onto the second's head, "What would we want with a brat like him?!"

"Well," the second voice said grumpily, rubbing his head from his companion's roughness, "Kid saved himself from a Titan with no help–"

_'Is that what that giant's called? They aren't human after all?'_

All of a sudden, he didn't feel so bad for punching out the Titan's spine. It would have killed him without any remorse, maybe even for sport too.

"–He was up in the air 'bout 60 or 50 meters! Man, you shoulda' seen it, kid was dangling off of this huge branch but he was tied to the thing! He looked like a butterfly in a cocoon!"

_'The elastic from my suit really held out for that long?! I'll never doubt the costuming department of U.A. ever again...'_

"Huh?" the first voice replied, completely flabbergasted, "How's that even possible? How'd he get up there in the first place?"

"Uh," the second said, "Crap, I don't really know."

The first figure turned to face him, almost noticing Izuku's open eyes. Thankfully, he was able to clasp them shut right before the figure could notice his consciousness.

"Hmph," the first figure stared at Midoriya, "Then he must be something really special."

The figure then turned back to face his companion. Izuku silently wheezed in relief and squinted his eyes, still keeping his focus on the two distinct figures.

"Still," he continued, "He can't be useful if both his arm and leg are broken. You got the 'new' serum, right?"

"Right as rain," the second figure replied, taking off his backpack and beginning to ruffle through the bag, "Good thing we found 'em. Now I can get better results for Zeke."

"Ugh," the first figure grunted, tossing a piece of tinder into the fire, "You were really going to inject yourself with that? I'm sure even  _he_  doesn't know what that shit'll do to you."

"He probably doesn't, but no hurt in trying, right!?" the second laughed, patting his friend's shoulder roughly. The man then became serious, "Look here, I'll just test a little bit out on that kid and see if it's okay. If it is, I'll test it out myself. If he dies, then I just don't and tell Zeke that I tested it out on a corpse or sum'n and it didn't work."

"That shit will knock him out immediately," the first said bitterly, "Better wait until he's conscious."

_'They're still talking about doing something to me... I need to get away. Now.'_

He tuned out the voices and tried to pull himself up, but he could not move a muscle in either of his obliterated limbs. His body was still not in peak condition, not even remotely. His arm and leg were still horribly broken, the skin even beginning to harden into a disgusting callous without the proper treatment he very much needed at the moment. He just had to wait this out and hope they didn't do anything  _ungodly_  to him while he pretended to be asleep...

_'Wait... could I... roll away?'_

On one hand, the idea was completely stupid and could get him into all kinds of trouble but on the other hand, it was definitely a better option than just waiting for a disaster to happen.

He slowly reached his hand out, getting a small hold in the loose dirt. He pulled towards himself and started to roll away slowly, but surely.

_'God, this has to be the stupidest idea I've ever come up with that actually worked...'_

Izuku kept his eyes squinted and his body language relaxed, just in case his saviors, and captors, noticed his movement. He rolled along slowly, trying to keep as little surface area on the ground as possible. If he made even a peep, there would be dire consequences.

The ground started to get steeper, and he had to pull himself along less and less as the hill got more inclined.

"HUH!?"

_'Oh crap...'_

"WHERE'D THAT LITTLE SHIT GO!?"

He remained quiet as he let himself get carried down by gravity, the little pebbles that were scattered around starting to leave little nicks on his skin.

"Damn, he's rolling down that hill!"

The slapping of feet against dirt was getting louder and louder as Izuku lost control of his movement. He'd stopped trying to roll ages ago.

Now he just wanted to  _stop_  rolling. He was clawing desperately at the ground, trying to find some sort of niche to get a hold of and stop his excessive speed. With each futile snatch, loose dirt lifted into his hand and sifted right back to the ground through his fingers.

_'Why did I decide to do this again?'_

The yells were getting closer and closer in proximity, the anxiety ready to make Izuku explode from the sheer amount building up inside. Still, he kept rolling down, even more violently then before. Each spin caused his whole body to jump into the air and smack fiercely into the ground once more. He was feeling each and every hit against the rocky earth.

_'It would be great if they could stop chasing me soon... then I could just focus on–'_

"AHH!" Midoriya squealed, caught completely off guard by one of his pursuer's actions. His leg was being squished violently by one of the two figures.

"Gotcha, ya' little maggot," the second figure from earlier growled, smiling deviously with pride from his catch and revealing his calloused fingers gripping Midoriya's red, pudding-like ankle.

Midoriya was forcefully dragged up the steep incline, being held in the air by his broken ankle. His one good hand was grazing against the dirt with each step closer to the two men's campfire.

_'No, no, no, no! This can't be happening! I need to get away!'_

He was piercing his hand into the ground, trying to delay his imminent demise at the hands of the two brutes. They were going to do something, he was sure of it. They were even bragging about it earlier.

"Good thing yer awake now," the second figure from earlier said cheerily, his entire body still shrouded in darkness, "Now we can get to work!"

After minutes of desperate clawing and grabbing, Izuku and the mysterious man were at the site of the campfire, Izuku completely dreading what could happen next.

"Okay," the first figure from earlier started. Looking at him from a different angle, Izuku took note of some obvious features of the man's face. The man had a long jaw, one that protruded farther than his other features. It jutted out in a way that was quite noticeable. His lips and nose were also quite large in comparison to his eyes. The rest of his face looked completely normal. The man turned his head to face his companion, "Get out the syringe, we're testing it now before he can escape."

"Right-o, Pieck," the second figure hummed as be began to ruffle through the bag. The man's face was lit up by the orange glow of the flames, eyes glistening with each flicker. Surprisingly enough, he looked extremely normal compared to his friend. Blue eyes with blond, short hair and barely a stubble decorating his chin. His eyes were filled with anxiousness, looking madly  _excited_ to try out the medical wonder.

Midoriya was squirming around like a worm, trying to escape the man's, whose name was apparently Pieck, ferocious grip. His teeth were clenched as he bucked wildly, his one responsive leg flailing in Pieck's sturdy hands while his good arm scratching at the ground, trying despondently to get out of the man's hold.

"Got it!" the man said after rumpling through his bag vigorously. He held up an empty syringe and a small sealed jar with a thick parchment cover. The man proceeded to push down the plunger of the syringe scrupulously, forcing all air out of the glass barrel. He delicately poked open the jar with the syringe's acute tip, gently moving the plunger back up in order to fill it with the jar's precious contents; an unidentifiable, clear liquid.

With a sharp turn, he was facing Midoriya. The mad glint in the man's eyes was shining brighter than ever, his curiosity seemingly peaking with each step towards his prey. Izuku whimpered in fear, his mind blanking out and panic invading every inch of his thoughts. In that particular moment, he forgot how to think altogether.

His thoughts were numb, clouded. It was as if a thick fog surrounded him, making him completely unaware of his surroundings.

This was terror,  _fear_  in its worst form.

He shifted back to reality when an unfamiliar feeling went through his body. Metal pricked his skin, the vein of his left arm hugging the unclean metal of the syringe. His mind was getting clouded once again. Only this time, the world was really blurring around him. The figures in front of him began to deteriorate so fast, becoming orange-brown specks that he could barely distinguish from one another.

Izuku's limbs were burning, his body shaking vigorously as a side effect from the odd substance they gave him. It felt as if his body were on fire, his brain ready to reject the concept of being conscious altogether. Just when he thought it was over, a distant voice sounded.

"...success..."

The world blacked out before him, the two figures disappearing as fast as they had appeared.

* * *

**Izuku Midoriya - ?**

Everything was sore.

To be more specific, Izuku's body was burning like the surface of the sun, aching with every  _centimeter_  of movement he made. This pain was horrible enough to the extent that he could not walk. Or even  _sit up_ for that matter.

Simply enough, he remained staring at the ceiling, silently cursing his fixed position and hoping for the aches to ease away.

Slowly, but surely, the world stopped spinning around him and he was able to barely scrape up enough energy to elevate himself from the ground. When he was finally in a relatively normal sitting position, his legs overlapping one another by the knees, he surveyed his bleak surroundings.

He was in a building.  _Safe._

At least, he hoped so.

His head rotated with the stunning speed of a snail, barely managing to stay upright on his seemingly boulder-like shoulders. It was as if while he was asleep, his body decided to spontaneously triple his weight. Of course, his body didn't have the  _courtesy_  to let him know that he would feel like he was an elephant the next morning.

The room was plainly decorated, more or less. A wood floor, painted interior, and shelves. Many,  _many_  shelves. Housed on these shelves were boxes and jars of every sort, insisting the possibility of this place being a bunker of some sort.

Izuku's mind continued humming along passively, not being completely aware nor unaware of his predicament. It was an uneasy state of incapacity, and it was driving him absolutely bonkers. He wanted desperately to grasp the situation at hand; to find out how he even  _got_  here. Unfortunately, his brain wasn't having it.

So what did he do? He sat there.

He sat there and stared at the wall right in front of him, being the mental equivalent of brain dead for who knows how long until he was jutted out of his thoughts with a piercing sound.

"Oi," a cold, sharp voice demanded Izuku's attention. Groggily turning to face the source of the deadly tone, he sees a pair of steel grey eyes staring right back at his own half-lidded, green hued pair of eyes.

"Huh?" he grumbled, giving all he could offer in a single sentence to appease the commanding voice. It wasn't necessarily his fault that he couldn't think clearly, but the frigid man seemed to think otherwise.

"Brat," the grey eyed man spat, pouring every ounce of malice into the short word. The rough clank and scrape of a blade against the ground could be heard as he continued, "What the  _hell_  are you doing here?"

He continued to peer into the eyes of the stranger with extreme blurriness and before he knew it, there was a blade against his throat and a calloused hand gruffly seizing the back of his collar.

"Do I need to repeat myself?" the apathetic stranger seethed once more. This time, a look of murderous intent tore into Midoriya's soul, "What the  _fuck_  are you doing here?"

Midoriya did a full-body shudder and gulped nervously. The iron of the blade was too close for comfort and it was making Midoriya sweat like an absolute  _pig._

_'Just what have I gotten myself into!?'_


	3. Arrest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yada yada yada, I own nothing but plot, yada yada yada, rights go to respective mangaka. Commence chapter!

_**SOUND**_  = Onomatopoeia

 _'Words'_ = Thoughts of the current POV character

 _Words_  = Normal dialogue or narration with emphasis

* * *

**Last Chapter...**

_"Do I need to repeat myself?" the apathetic stranger seethed once more. This time, a look of murderous intent tore into Midoriya's soul, "What the fuck are you doing here?"_

_Midoriya did a full-body shudder and gulped nervously. The iron of the blade was too close for comfort and it was making Midoriya sweat like an absolute pig._

_'Just what have I gotten myself into!?'_

* * *

**Izuku**

He sat face to face with the eyes of death. The leaden orbs were glaring back into his own, dangling the threat of annihilation right in front of his pallid expression.

The steel of the stranger's blade nipped lightly at Midoriya's tender skin, the sharp edge ready to slit along his throat and end his life right where he sat. This was the moment of truth; Midoriya had only moments, maybe mere seconds, to talk the stranger out of killing him this very instant.

He swallowed the large amount of fear that racked his body and began to stumble out a nearly incoherent string of words.

"I-I'm s-sorry but I have no i-idea what y-you're t-talking about, s-sir!" he spluttered out, unable to hide the fact that he was sweating bullets and was about to pass out from the amount of tension that the stranger was creating.

The stranger continued to gaze at him, his face as still as stone while he examined his prey. A few minutes passed and neither party had said a single word since Midoriya's sad excuse for an explanation.

Finally, the stranger stood up, still keeping the blade against Midoriya's throat.

"Look brat," the stranger said bitterly, pronouncing the word 'brat' harshly. The man began to circle around Midoriya's cornered figure, "I don't care if you don't tell me what happened here."

"Huh?" Midoriya squeaked out, his face still red from the stranger's intimidating scowl.

"You heard me," the stranger spoke, his tone becoming more apathetic than threatening. The blade lowered slowly from Midoriya's neck, the threat of death easing away, "If you're not going to tell me, then you'll have to deal with the Military Police."

"D-does that mean–" Midoriya started before being harshly interrupted.

"But I'll give you a hint," the stranger uttered, his pupils contracting slightly, "They're much harsher than I am, and I doubt they would let you live if we bring you back."

"What do you–" Midoriya started once more, only to be interrupted by a sudden noise.

 _ **THUD.**_  The noise emanated from the door to the bunker.

"Yo, Levi!" a voice sounded from the other side of the reinforced door, "You accidentally locked the door when you came in!"

"I swear on Wall Rose..." the grey-eyed man muttered to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. The stranger slid his sword back into its sheath that was seemingly attached to him at the waist. The blade scraped against the sheath until it finally clicked in. The man then abruptly turned to face the door and walked towards it. He responded to the odd voice, "Only you're half-assed enough to walk into a closed door, Shitty Four-eyes."

With one forceful pull, the stranger had opened the door, revealing a beaming woman with somehow  _shiny_  hair and goggles stationed firmly on her forehead. She pushed past the stranger, rushing towards Izuku with inhuman speed. Izuku squeaked in unadulterated terror and curled into a small ball.

The woman instantly grabbed him by the arms and forced him onto his feet.

"You... YOU! I-I have so many questions for you!" she squealed, shaking Izuku with intense vigor. She continued her hurried blurb of words and sounds, "Oh, oh! How did you survive out here!? What was your food source?! All the canned food is years old, likely expired... WERE YOU EATING TITANS!?"

"Hange," the stranger called, seemingly unfazed by the woman's 'scene'.

"Yes, Levi?" the woman responded in a sickeningly sweet voice, almost completely forgetting about the boy still being clutched by her arms.

"Put the brat down and breathe for a minute."

* * *

After the insane woman was removed from Izuku's body and taken out of the room, the stranger whom the woman had called "Levi" tied his hands behind his back and started to guide him outside of the bunker-like room and to the surface. "Levi" was quiet throughout the whole walk to the outside, making the whole experience more awkward than it already was.

They passed through multiple musty corridors and rotted wooden doors, finally making it to a flight of stone stairs that were growing moss on the sides. From the bottom of the steps, Izuku could barely make out a circular door with glimmers of light shining through the cracks.

"Keep moving," Levi pushed, unhappy with the sudden halt in their trip to the surface.

"O-okay..." Izuku started to trek up the set of mossy stairs.

_'I'm not sure why I'm here, but I'm at the mercy of these people. If I attempt an escape, I could be caught again. I'm sure they won't be as merciful as this time. If I do succeed, I won't know where to go... and if I somehow find a town or city, these people may be their military. Either way I look at it, it's my best option to just do what they say.'_

The climb was consistently silent, the only exceptions being Izuku's and Levi's light breathing and the occasional drop of water that would somehow make itself through the wooden ceiling. Finally, after what seemed like twenty minutes of walking, the group of two stopped at the vertically placed door that had light seeping through the corners.

For the second time since reprimanding the insane woman, Levi spoke once again:

"In accordance with Military law, I'm required to tell you why you are being taken into custody by the Survey Corps." He let the words sink into Izuku's frazzled mind and continued with the explanation, "You were found inside of a Military Police outpost in Wall Maria territory, which makes you immediately guilty of trespassing upon military property. In addition to that, you are a subject of interest to the Survey Corps for being located outside of Wall Rose. You'll be questioned immediately upon entering the Trost District and your court hearing for trespassing will be conducted soon after, preferably without the knowledge of the public."

Izuku nodded in understanding, still standing by his resolve to peacefully follow this military's instructions.

"Do you have any questions, or are you just going to keep nodding?" Levi asked, waiting for a response.

"Yes, where are we exactly?" Izuku asked meekly, still wary of the man's attitude.

"We're currently inside the territory of Wall Maria, which is unoccupied by any humans," Levi said, giving Izuku a sharp look with the word 'humans'. He finished, "We are approximately 80 kilometers away from the Trost District."

"Uh, alright." Izuku said, let down by the answer. He had been hoping for more explanative information, but this would have to do for now.

"One question for you, brat," Levi started, "I want to know who I've been talking to for the last hour."

"Oh! Of course," Izuku responded, slightly startled by the out-of-the-blue question. He gave a light smile and said, "Midoriya Izuku, that's my name."

"Address me as Captain Levi from now on, and refrain from mentioning your name and charge to any other soldier who asks," Captain Levi ordered, "Understood?"

"Yes Sir."

There was no choice but to be complacent to the Captain's orders, so Izuku made sure to be quiet unless spoken to. Even if his conscience is clear, he is a prisoner of this group. If he's done them wrong, then he has no choice but to follow their rules. It's the only thing a Hero would do, face their sins head on.

Levi moved in front of Izuku and pushed the circular door. The door opened with a groan and sunlight immediately filled the dark underground passage.

"Get a move on, brat."

* * *

**Toshinori/All Might**

Classes at UA were canceled for three days, Principal Nedzu and Detective Naomasa calling in the major heroes, and staff, present at the USJ incident in for a security meeting, as well as to inform them all of the specifics that happened during the attack. Knowing what the conference would be about as soon as he caught wind of the news, Toshinori took the event quite seriously.

Seriously enough that he was the second person to arrive, right after Nedzu himself. Toshinori knew beforehand that all the occupants of the room were trustworthy, to the point he  _knew_  that not one of them would spill a single word that was spoken in this room.

One by one, the room filled with heroes, the one exception being Detective Naomasa himself. Each hero took a seat, Detective Naomasa sitting at one end of the table with a large stack of papers neatly tucked in his palm. Finally, the last required member entered and the door shut automatically.

The room contained only six inhabitants: Principal Nedzu, Detective Naomasa, Toshinori himself, Blood King, Midnight, and Snipe.

"As all of the people required to be here are in this room, the door has been locked and will not be opened at any time throughout the duration of the conference," Principal Nedzu stated. He then directed a furry arm to the door on the side adjacent to the entrance and gave a small smile, "If anyone needs to use the restroom, that door will lead to the lavatories. Please do keep in mind that anything said in here will not be repeated again, so I highly suggest you use it now and refrain from using it again until the end of the briefing. This room is soundproofed, anything said inside is meant for the people in this room  _only_. By being here, you are being sworn to the utmost secrecy. I hope you can follow this instruction."

Each person nodded solemnly, an unspoken contract signed and sealed by every nodding head.

"Detective Naomasa?" Nedzu nodded at the man in question.

Naomasa placed the stack of papers on the table, dividing it into six equal piles of paper. Once he finished separating the stack, he addressed the rest of the room:

"These papers contain the currently known information about the attack at USJ. All six of these stacks contain the same information, all under confidentiality of the Police Investigative Force," Naomasa passed the papers out, each stack held neatly together by a single paper clip. He then continued, "I'd suggest you memorize all information in these papers. After doing so, please dispose of them so that the information cannot be recovered. If any of the villains at the USJ manage to get their hands on this, then they would know exactly how much we know about them. This could create a major disadvantage for all heroes on the battlefield with this 'League of Villains'."

The room quickly grew silent after the sounds of shuffling papers died down, everyone had their necks bent, scanning through the important information. A few minutes passed until Naomasa spoke again:

"Alright, let's get started." He stood up from his seat and proceeded to walk to the front of the table, all eyes focused on him, "Our investigators have been looking into the group that calls themselves the "League of Villains". In fact, we're continuing to uncover new information this very moment." Naomasa frowned, "Unfortunately, we were unable to find anything on 'Shigaraki' and 'Kurogiri'. We searched our database for people with disintegration quirks and warping quirks, but nothing turned up. They're either not citizens, or they're using aliases to throw us off. Either way, information about the two will be difficult to find."

"So we really don't know anything about the two... damn." Blood King grumbled.

"We gotta track em' down," Snipe said, "I shot the Ring Leader a few times, but it ain't gonna buy us much time. I'd bet that once he's healed up from the wounds, they'll come back to bite us again. Maybe even during the Sports Festival, what a pain."

"It seems... in character, for him at least," Toshinori stated bluntly, "From the way he acted at the USJ, I'd assume the same thing too..."

Toshinori left the sentence hanging, seemingly lost in thought.

"Is something on your mind, All Might?" Nedzu asked, a hint of concern laced between the simple words.

"It's just," Toshinori paused. He squinted his eyes for a moment and continued, "The attack on the USJ was too bold, nothing a sane adult would even think of doing. The Ring Leader kept monologuing about his reasons for the attack and bragging about Noumu's quirks and abilities, but he never mentioned a thing about his own quirk. When we defeated him, he looked homicidal, murderous; like he was about to throw a tantrum and go on a killing spree." Toshinori then grunted, "I'll have to give him credit for that; bragging about Noumu was probably the quickest way to bait me into a fight."

"Well, think of it this way," Nedzu began, "It may be true that he was successful with dragging you into a fight, but strategically, it was quite foolish to reveal his quirks upfront instead of keeping them hidden."

"Hm," Naomasa nodded in agreement, still standing in the center of the room.

"Shigaraki made insane claims, all with a straight face," Toshinori stated, "But he also referred to Noumu as if he were a pet; as if he  _owned_  him. He's got the personality of a three-year-old; a spoiled little brat. It's almost as if he'd never been told 'no' before in his life. I'd say a 'man-child'."

"Yes, but he's a child with an incredible amount of power and an equally incredible amount of villains under his wing," Blood King butted in, bringing a valid point into the conversation.

"It's possible," Lady Midnight started, "No, it's likely that he never got the quirk counseling that people receive in Elementary School."

"Maybe so," Snipe agreed, "But either way, it doesn't really matter now. For him, Pandora's box has already been opened."

"There were 72 villains arrested in the aftermath of the USJ attack," Naomasa read off of the sheet with data, "Most were small-time thugs who usually lurked around back-alleys. What worries me is that this man-child got them all to go along with his crazy plan. With the way some of them behaved during arrest, they really viewed him as a real leader." Naomasa sighed, "It makes sense actually. With all the heroes on patrol lately, villains have been under more pressure than ever. This is probably why they were so quick to back such an insane idea."

"Guess that makes sense," Blood King nodded, his face twisted into a thoughtful expression.

"There are plenty of people looking to get behind a cause nowadays," Snipe remarked, "It just took one mindless idea to spark such a bold movement."

"So what can we do to stop them?" Lady Midnight asked.

"We'll just have to dig deeper for more information. It is thanks to you heroes that we have the time to look further into this case, after all," Naomasa continued, "It's from this point forward that we'll expand the investigation and look for the perpetrators behind this attack. There's also the matter of preventing future incidents from occurring."

"This is incredibly important, especially due to what happened to one of our students during the attack," Principal Nedzu frowned. He then turned his head to face Naomasa, "Any news of his current status, Detective?"

"Unfortunately, no," Naomasa adorned a pitiful expression, making eye contact with Toshinori for a brief second, "We've been unable to locate Midoriya Izuku. We're sure that he was the only person kidnapped at the scene, but it's still overwhelming to think that this group of villains was able to take a student so easily.  _If_  you're still willing to go through with the Sports Festival, Principal, I'd suggest that you double up on the security. This incident could easily be repeated, if not done on a larger scale than before."

"The safety of our students is a priority, I'd suggest canceling the event altogether. Who knows what the student in their clutches is enduring right now..." Blood King trailed off.

"I disagree, actually," Nedzu spoke, his paw grasping his chin in a very thoughtful manner. Everyone else in the room seemed shocked at the statement, with the exception of Snipe, the mask covering up the emotions of the man inside. The rodent-man continued, "Perhaps this is the intended purpose of the attack, to discourage us from holding the Festival. By canceling it, we would be making a statement of surrender, that we've caved to the effects of their campaign. If we continue with the Festival, we'd be showing them down, continuing on without submitting to their cause. However, there is one major downside I see to continuing the Festival..."

"I understand," Toshinori sharply spoke. He then continued, to explain the issue with his coworkers, "In wake of the disappearance of Midoriya Izuku–" he winced slightly at the thought of his successor, "– the public would detest us for continuing the Sports Festival instead of putting our efforts towards searching for him. His disappearance isn't something that can, or should, be kept from the public. The backlash would be absolutely incredible if we were to continue on with the event."

"I still suggest that we cancel the Festival this year, the threat of another kidnapping is too great to ignore," Blood King remarked, his expression guarded, "I couldn't live with the guilt that one of my students was kidnapped on my watch; I'm absolutely sure that the rest of you share my sentiments."

"What if we make the Festival into something else then," Lady Midnight started, her eyes clouded with thought, "If we make the Festival into a tribute for the kidnapped student, then we'd remove the risk of public backlash and still send the intended message to the League of Villains."

"A tribute?" Snipe chided, "He's not dead, Kayama."

An awkward silence filled the room, Lady Midnight looking slightly guilty at Snipe's comment.

"I believe that I've come to a decision," Nedzu started. He raised his head and continued, "It is due to the events occurred at the USJ that I will decide to  _cancel_  the U.A. Sports Festival this year. The risk of another kidnapping is too great, and the risk of public backlash is a credible threat. Perhaps this was the reaction they were hoping for, but this may benefit us in the long run. Not to mention, the Festival would showcase the quirks of our students. The kidnapped student has a fairly powerful quirk, very similar to Toshinori's. I reason that since they kidnapped one student with a powerful quirk, they'd aim to kidnap more students with powerful quirks. If we were to go on with the Festival, we'd be allowing this group to analyze each and every one of our students, an easy way to pick and choose their next victims."

"We'll have to buff up the security around the school's perimeter as a precaution," Blood King said. He shook his head, "We're treading onto new territory, no knowing what can happen next."

"Wouldn't it be unfair to the students?" Lady Midnight questioned. She diverged, "I mean, they won't get a chance to be scouted by heroes or make their debut on the hero scene. It could potentially ruin their futures."

"You could say the same exact thing about Midoriya," Toshinori said bluntly, his response dry.

"They'll have chances in the future," Nedzu reassured them, "As for now, the students will have to be offered internships based on their academic performance. Our main priority is to keep the students safe, and that's final."

"Then it's settled," Detective Naomasa stated, "The police force will increase our efforts in investigating both the League of Villains as well as the whereabouts of Midoriya Izuku. You're all responsible for increasing the security of the school's entrance and perimeter."

"I believe we've all come to an agreement, the safety of the students is paramount," Nedzu stated. He then ruled, "I'd suggest that you keep most of the information said today away from the students. Of course, I'll send out a syllabus of what is alright to mention. Meeting adjourned."

The heroes began to get up, organizing their newfound papers and a few starting towards the door. Toshinori took the time to read over the papers one last time, memorizing some of the key details. He then neatly folded them and placed them deep inside his suit pocket.

He was the last person in the room, aside from Naomasa. All the others had departed with haste.

"Is there any hope for him?" Toshinori suddenly asked, his eyes staring at the empty table in front of him.

"There is, Toshinori," Naomasa replied, "We'll get him back, there's still much more to be uncovered."

_'Still more to be uncovered, huh. I hope you're alright kiddo, we're working as fast as we can to get you back... wherever you are.'_

* * *

**Izuku**

He was roughly hoisted from the ground and thrown onto something akin to a wheelbarrow. The 'wheelbarrow' was attached to some horses, leading Izuku to believe that the vehicle was something akin to a truck. To him, it seemed odd for a military to use  _horses_  of all things to travel, especially when planes and cars were at most other military's command.

He quietly sat in the wooden structure, waiting for the vehicle to lurch forward and take him to God-knows-where. The carriage was stationed at a small camp, filled with people in green capes that had an insignia with wings. Most of them ignored him while some others passed by to shoot looks of curiosity, disgust, or pity at him. There was one person who sat on a tree stump right next to the carriage, occasionally staring at him with a smug and arrogant smirk on his face. The man looked as if he were middle-aged, grey-ing hair and some older characteristics on his face. He also had a cravat in his hairstyle, similar to how the Captain from earlier had his, but this man's hair was much curlier.

Izuku reasoned that he was probably the person assigned to keep watch on him, in case he tried to pull anything funny.

After what seemed like hours and hours of silence, Izuku finally submitted to his own curiosity and spoke to the guard.

"Erm, excuse me, Sir?" Izuku asked the person guarding him. The seemingly elder man picked his head up from the sword he was sharpening, whetstone in hand, and gave Izuku a pointed look.

"Yes, brat?" the man spat, his teeth locked together in a perpetual sarcastic grin, "I'm obviously not busy sharpening my swords, so of course I have time to talk to you. Go on, speak."

"Uh, well," Izuku meekly spoke, stunned by the response that the soldier gave, "Who are you people? I've never seen a military with this type of uniform..."

"You're kidding, right?" the man gave a little laugh, the sound slowly dying as he realized that Izuku was quite serious. He finally spoke, "Well, damn. The real question is how you  _haven't_  heard of us. You're sitting in the middle of a military camp-out, we're the Survey Corps to be exact. We scout outside the walls when others choose to hide behind them. Damn cowards."

"I don't really understand..." Izuku trailed off. The man gestured for him to continue, "Well, what exactly are you going against? What makes going outside of these 'walls' so dangerous?"

"Guess you don't know basic history, kid. I'll enlighten you then," the man stopped for a moment to clear his throat. He gave a cough before starting, "I'll give you the run-down version, it's the minimum you should know. A few hundred years ago, humanity thrived on the planet. Our civilization grew, new settlements popping up all around. It was during this Golden Age that a new species suddenly appeared; the Titans. They–"

"Oh!" Izuku interrupted. The man gave him a harsh look of disapproval. Izuku gave a nervous chuckle, "You must mean those huge humans in the forest."

"Kid, those things are  _not_  human," the man growled, "If you could only know the things they've done, the people they've killed..."

The man sighed, seemingly spacing out from the conversation. Izuku politely coughed and got the man's attention back.

"Oh, right," the man seemed to take on an annoyed tone, "I was talking about  _basic_  history. Well, the Titans suddenly appeared one day, no warning. They began to attack our towns and cities, devouring as many humans as possible. It's estimated that we lost more than half of the population before the walls were constructed, the sacrifice of our ancestors. Ever since the three walls were built, humanity has been hiding inside, away from the onslaught of the Titans. And brat, that's exactly  _why_  being outside of the walls is dangerous. You're lucky that you haven't been gobbled up yet, regardless of how long you've been living it up out here."

"Erm, thanks?" Izuku responded. With the way the man worded his sentence, Izuku couldn't tell whether or not his survival abilities were being commended, or being reprimanded for not scrambling to the safety of the walls quicker. Either way, he was mildly confused.

"Anyways, the monarchy pays us to go explore outside the walls. We're one of the three main branches of the military, the most respectable one in my opinion," the man commented. His face twisted into a disgusted scowl, "The two other branches are cowards, hiding behind the wall since they can't face a real Titan. Unable to do the job they were trained for. It's a real waste."

"Alright, well, thank you Sir. For telling me about this group, I mean," Izuku spoke in shambles.

_'I... I have a lot to think about now. So much new information, it's as if I were thrown into another time period or something.'_

"Eh, what's your name? I was ordered to guard you, but I didn't think to ask," the man suddenly questioned.

"I'm sorry, but Captain Levi told me that I avoid giving any other soldier my name," Izuku said, wincing slightly at the heartbroken expression the man was sporting.

"But... but I'm basically his second in command!?" the man seemed as if he were about to start crying, "How could he withhold such important information from me,  _me?_ I thought he would at least include his most valued sol–"

"OH MY GOSH, YOUR TONGUE!" Izuku cried as the man's mouth suddenly burst with blood. The maroon liquid began to slide down his chin as he gingerly stuck his tongue out, bite mark completely visible.

"Don't worry about him," a new, female voice said. Izuku turned towards the woman, she had dark blonde hair and brown eyes and was carrying a box full of what seemed like propane tanks to Izuku. She spoke once more, "Petra Ral, I work under Captain Levi. The dunce next to you is Oluo, he does  _that_  on a normal basis."

"Don't patronithe me, Ral," Oluo spoke, his outward tongue creating a small lisp in his speech, "It'th not even my fault, that brat made me talk to him! Thinthe you're here, you can watch him while I get thomething to thoothe my wound."

With that, the man got up and walked away in a strut, his tongue still loosely hanging out of his mouth and his eyes watery. Petra sighed:

"Well, I suppose getting these gas tanks to the supplies cart is on hold," she gently placed the box of gas tanks on the soft soil and sat down on the same stump that Oluo had just occupied moments ago, "He tries too hard, honestly."

"Huh?" Izuku asked, "He tries too hard at what?"

"To be like the Captain," she jeered, "I'm sure you noticed it too."

Izuku supposed that it was true, to a certain degree. The man tried to keep the same condescending tone that the Captain had scared him half to death with. The act was definitely not on spot however, the man's arrogance and sarcasm was obnoxiously loud. Nothing at all like the personality that Izuku faced underground.

"I guess," Izuku mumbled, still disoriented from the sudden wound that the soldier received. He looked up into the sky, clouds seemed to be gathering high above. It seemed like it was about to rain. Perhaps it would wash away the excitement from today, give him a little more energy to function.

"Hey, kid," Petra suddenly butted into his thoughts, "Is something wrong? You look a bit gloomy."

"Honestly, it's just been a really long day," Izuku gave her a tasteless laugh.

"Well, don't worry. You seem like a nice kid, regardless of what we're arresting you for, and I'm sure you'll get out of this without too much trouble," she gave him a grin, "Hell, by your reaction to Oluo's injury, you seem to care about a guy that you didn't even know. Speaks volumes about your character."

"Thank you, really," Izuku had a goofy smile plastered onto his face, "But you didn't have to praise me or anything."

"Maybe, maybe not. I personally think that you're going to get off easy for whatever the hell they're charging you for. I might even see you wearing one of these–" she gestured towards her outfit, "– when this is over."

"That's a bit of a leap, isn't it?" Izuku said, still flattered by the woman's praise.

"It's your choice," she said, leaning back a little bit, "If you got the resolve, then I'd suggest it. If not, then you can do whatever you want. Just remember; our cause is one that you need to devote your life to. Nothing more, and nothing less."

"Alright, I gotcha," Izuku replied, a new thought on his mind.

"I see Oluo staggering back here now," she observed. Izuku looked where her head was pointed and saw the strange man approaching them, seemingly chewing on something vigorously. Petra hoisted herself up and retrieved the supplies that she dropped earlier, "I'll see you later, whenever that may be."

The young woman walked away in a hurry, carting the box away to another one of the strange carriages. Oluo finally arrived and plopped himself down onto the stump. He continued to chew whatever was in his mouth and shoot occasional dirty looks at the young hero.

Izuku sighed as a light drizzle began, coating his already torn and abused gym outfit in water.

_'That woman, Petra, she thought that I should join this group. It seems like a good group of people serving a good cause but, my obligations are elsewhere. First things first,_

_I have to find All Might, everyone else as well. No matter what it takes.'_


	4. To Linger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh loRD. I don't even think a million sorries is enough to make up for this hell of a hiatus.
> 
> But at least it took less than four months this time, right? rIGHT?
> 
> Erm, apologies dear readers. I want to keep to an update schedule, I REALLY do, but school is unpredictable and only now have I actually had the time (because Thanksgiving break in the US) in order to sit down and actually write this.
> 
> Warnings remain the same as the last chapter, they will remain the same for the rest of this story.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own neither of these properties. They belong to their respective owners and I'm sure that all of you agree that I shouldn't own them either.
> 
> Sorry if this chapter is utter crap, I tried my best in such a short window of time. I'll probably do edits over the next week when i reread this and cringe at the errors.
> 
> This story is crossposted on my main account, CorgisAreMyBae, on Fanfiction (.) net. That's where the original publication occurs.

_**SOUND**_  = Onomatopoeia

 _'Words'_ = Thoughts of the current POV character

 _Words_  = Normal dialogue or narration with emphasis

* * *

**Izuku**

The rugged cloth that had previously held Midoriya's hands hostage was replaced with a proper pair of handcuffs after a short while, the harried people finally making some time to pay attention to the child they had miraculously 'found' during their expedition. The metal chafed against his wrists, leaving a rather unsavory red-blotch around the areas it squeezed. He had started to notice the pinkish marks every time he shifted his arms to get the blood flowing to his numb fingers.

The longer he spent waiting for these people to move, to finally judge him, the deeper he sank into his own little pit of worry and despair. He began to wonder and consequently worry about the things that were happening at home, all the things that were probably being done to find him.

The reality of the situation grew dimmer and dimmer as his plausible worries clouded his psyche. He couldn't even remember how he got here, what he had done, who he's left behind...

Oh God, All Might was probably freaking out over him. It made sense after all, Izuku had received the  _rarest Quirk in existence_  only to go missing after less than a year of owning it. As a result, All Might was going to get  _worse_  in his condition and he could  _die_  and then he would never get  _home_  and One for All would  _never get passed on_... and would be  _all_ his fault. And his friends–

–oh, his friends.

They must have been worried sick about him. The first people to  _actually_  support him and break through his nervous shell instead of mercilessly demeaning him were fretting over  _him,_ spending their time looking for him and investigating just so  _he could come home_. It was all his fault. Oh, oh the useless feeling of being a  _Deku_  kicked in as it usually did when he realized how much of a  _pain_  he was, causing him to spiral deeper and deeper into his concerns.

He could feel himself muttering and muttering, the stares of the surrounding crowd becoming even more and more noticeable as the cacophony of the world slowly died with his retreating mind. Izuku couldn't feel his mouth anymore, he didn't even know what he was  _saying_. Oh  _God,_  the stares got even more intense as the crowd around him started to coagulate into a small audience in front of his perch. His knees hugged closer to his chest, his body trying to make itself as small as possible to avoid the  _stares._

The glowers of the soldiers  _bore_  further guilt into his soul, the spirit of hopelessness piercing his mind.

An odd sensation fell over him, his body was swaying back and forth, perhaps the pressure of the gazes thrusting him even further and further into his physical attempt to escape. He shouldn't waste time here, he couldn't–

It all felt so hopeless after the sensation of hope washed away with the rain, if only–

"Stop that."

Any semblance of panic suddenly faded, the hallucinated crowd dissipating before his misted eyes. He blinked away the unsavory and unwanted moisture until his vision became crystal clear, immediately looking for the source of the commanding voice.

He found himself face to face, again, with the absolutely  _terrifying_  Captain.

"Good, you've finally stopped your whining," the man frigidly commented. Levi suddenly hoisted him by the legs and dragged him off of the wheelbarrow he had been inhabiting. The man set him on the ground with a surprising amount of ease and immediately said, "Find someone who needs your help, just don't leave the area. We  _will_  find you if Oluo can't check on your whining ass."

"Um, why?" was the only words Midoriya could manage to squeak out in a moment of utter mortification.

"Brat, you're already a nuisance due to the fact that we  _caught_ _you out here_ ," the man forcibly turned him around and started to undo the cuffs that bound his wrists to one another. After finishing the arduous task, Levi gesticulated towards a group of soldiers packing an empty wheelbarrow and said, "If you're going to be throwing tantrums and causing my soldier's work to be less than adequate," a sharp cry of pain could be heard through the cacophony of noise, "then it's better off if you're doing something productive. Start over there, and don't come back here until we're ready to take off."

The Captain strutted away without another word, and Oluo almost immediately revealed himself from his hiding place; right behind the wheelbarrow Izuku had been occupying for hours. The gray-haired man was sporting a freshly bitten tongue, once again hanging limply from his shuddering and whimpering jaw.

"Less than adequate?" Oluo whispered to himself, the lisp from hours before returning with the newfound injury, "Surely I'm not thith irrethponthible in the Captain'th eyes? No... no! It'th your fault kid! Thtop being thuch a dithraction and jutht get to work."

The man grumbled to himself and strutted off to get more medical treatment for the re-opened tongue wound.

Izuku could only stare as he watched the strange man walk away, downright shocked at what just occurred in front of him. This could be one of the weirdest experiences he's had, which was odd because he had been forced to eat a blonde man's hair once before in his lifetime.

That was saying something, but he wasn't sure what. He shook himself out of the reverie of  _weirdness_  and rubbed his hands together in order to get the neglected arteries and veins in proper working order. If he was being asked to work and not be a nuisance to the Captain, then he was going to deliver.

He was going to deliver, and do much more than that. He began his march to the unloaded carriages and wheelbarrows, smile wide on his face and racing with determination.

He didn't even notice that his wrists were smoking, the blotchy red marks ebbing away with the smog.

* * *

**Katsuki Bakugou**

Katsuki was having a real fucking bad day.

To start off, his hag mother woke him up at five in the morning while making her stupid-ass breakfast and made him fall off his fucking bed because 'it's his first day back at school and he needs to get his ass dressed and at UA'. At fuckin' six o' clock of course.

He had to take the damn train to UA and the entire time, he was surrounded by stupid-ass sheep who couldn't stop bitching and yapping about the attack in the USJ. Couldn't these fucking idiots be more herd-like? What a bunch of predictable little shits, it physically hurt to listen to them babble about bullshit they heard on the fucking news.

Once he finally arrived at UA, he was assaulted by fucking posse of shit reporters that wanted his fucking account on the damn attack. If it weren't illegal and/or bad for his future, Katsuki would have definitely fucking bashed some moronic journalist's head in. To add insult to injury, he swore he saw the fucking lady who triggered the alarm on the first week of school and allowed those villain fuckers to find a way into the USJ. Absolute bullshit.

He was basically muttering to himself, much to his own mortification, like fucking  _Deku_. As if this day couldn't get any fucking worse, he was comparing himself to that useless little shit that somehow managed to hide the fucking goldmine of Quirks for  _years_. What a fucking joke, trying to make himself feel so  _high and noble_  for playing Quirkless. Please, he scoffed. He didn't even remember the last time he saw the fucking dork, probably ran off right after all that shit at the USJ.

By the time he was walking through the colossal door of classroom 1-A, he was tense and, unsurprisingly, angry as fuck. He didn't even attempt to soothe his anger before slamming the classroom door open and making a beeline towards his desk. Of course, he had already garnered a fucking parade around him.

"Yo, dude!" the red-haired bastard cried out to him, "I know you're normally  _ready to kill people on the spot_ , but today you seem, well, even more intense than that!"

"Yes, I concur with Kirishima's viewpoint," Engine-legs cried out, waving his hand in that weird-ass way that he always does, "Perhaps it is the excitement for the return of classes, yes? The invigorating feeling of being back on the noble road to becoming a hero!?"

"Just... shut up," Katsuki was practically  _one_  with the surface of his desk. He gave his temples a brief rub and muttered, "Or I'll  _kill you all."_

 _"_ What was that,  _Blasty Mc'Splode?"_  the red idiot quipped, putting his hands on his hips in a joking manner. He cupped his hand around his ear and jeered, "Did I hear a little 'ol  _death threat_  in there?"

"Classic Bakugou," electric pole shrugged, wearing a toothy smile. He waggled a finger around and started yapping, "Always willing to brighten up everyone's day with horrible insults!"

"Have you no sense of self preservation!?" cried out the kid with fucking purple balls for hair. The pervert covered his face with his hands and whimpered, "Don't anger the God of Explosions, he has no mercy..."

Suddenly, the door slammed open and the classroom was greeted with what seemed to be a mummy.

Or a man wrapped in toilet paper.

"Take your seats," the figure yelled out, staggering towards the front of the room where the chalkboard was. The toilet-paper man hobbled to where Aizawa-Sensei usually slept in his sleeping bag and sat back against the wall, muttering something about 'goddamn bandages'.

Katsuki finally raised his head from his desk, safe from the barrage of utter fuckery that was being thrown at him minutes before. Almost automatically, he leaned against his arm and stationed his head right above his palm. He silently groaned as he saw round-face raising her hand awkwardly from her damn seat.

"Ah," round-face finally squeaked. She continued with a concerned, and rather confused, tone, "Aizawa-Sensei, is that  _you_?"

"Yes Uraraka, and frankly," Sensei attempted to raise his bandaged hand but decided not to after a few attempts and just settled for a pointed stare around the room. He started again, "–and frankly, I would appreciate if you all stopped staring at me as if I just came back from the  _dead_."

"Excuse me, Sensei," engine-legs stood up abruptly, startling the people next to him, "But are you sure that your health is sufficient enough to be teaching?"

"Yes Iida, I've been cleared by Recovery Girl to teach," Sensei sighed and decided to sink against the wall, finding a seat on the floor. Engine-legs seemed content with the answer and finally sat his ass down in his chair. Aizawa-Sensei continued, "Now, may I finally start class or are one of you going to ask more questions?"

"Actually," red idiot started, "Where is Mi–"

"That was rhetorical, Kirishima," Aizawa-Sensei pinched the bridge of his nose, emanating frustration all around.

"Oh, uh," red idiot rubbed the back of his neck and gave a more than embarrassed cough, "Can I still ask my question?"

"No," Sensei moved to lay down on the ground, ignoring the fact that his face was touching the disgusting floor.

Bakugou could barely believe that this was the shit he had to deal with every damn day.

"Now," Sensei pulled out a clipboard that had somehow managed to materialize from underneath his bandages, "I have some news for everyone, and this is information that Principal Nedzu has mandated I deliver to you personally regarding the attack on the USJ."

Katsuki could feel his rage spike, his fingernails digging into the palms of his hands. He's already had enough of this USJ shit throughout the entire morning, he was  _not_  gonna put up with hearing this shit for the rest of the day. If he keeps hearing the same fucking news...

"First off, I'll address the aftermath of the event," Sensei lazily scratched his chin while propping the clipboard up sideways on the floor, "Of course, as evident by myself, only staff were critically harmed during the incident. At least, that's as far as we know. Recovery Girl made it  _extremely clear_  to me that if any of you  _failed_  to report  _any_  injury to her or the medics on the scene, she will personally make it her business to find you."

The classroom remained mostly silent after the somewhat threatening statement, a few giving uneasy coughs and the purple pervert wringing his hands out like he was a goddamn villain. The ball-head kept whispering about 'nosebleeds' and seemed fucking mortified.

"There was one person whose status is currently, as the Principal puts it, 'unknown'. While I don't care about what assumptions you will make, _or have just made_ , on  _who_  this person is, you'll be informed eventually, if not later today. Moving on–"

"Whoah, wait!" red idiot interrupted Sensei, again, and clapped his hands together, "You're saying that someone went  _missing_  during a  _villain attack_  and we're not allowed to know  _WHO_  went missing!?"

"Precisely."

"W-What?! WHY?" red idiot cried, exasperated by their teacher's odd sense of reasoning and trekking even further into Katsuki's bad side.

"Not my choice," Aizawa-Sensei shrugged, scooting against the wall in order to find the best position for comfort, "It's simply what I was told to do. What I  _can_  say is that it's currently under investigation and that there's really nothing to worry about since the police are on the job."

"Okay, but you can't give us a sing–"

"No, not my business."

"If you're saying we'll figure this out anyway, why can't you jus–"

"I refuse to give out this information."

"Simply put: give up Kirishima," frog-girl bumped in, putting her finger on her tongue like fucking  _always_ , "Sensei won't give into your logic."

"Unmanly, dude," red idiot finally shut his jaw, for once in his life. Katsuki felt  _pain_  at hearing these losers bark all day.

"Right, onto news that I'm sure  _all_  of you will care about," Aizawa-Sensei took a deep breath and exhaled, preparing for whatever barrage that was about to hit him.

"The Sports Festival is  _cancelled_  this year."

And the room exploded. Katsuki silently fumed the  _fuck out_  as the biggest chance to prove how  _great he was_  was gone. Just like  _that_. The rest of the class had their own way of coping; mainly a rather copious amount of screeching from the more annoying kids while others –ahem, Engine-legs– began lecturing  _Sensei_  on why this is the  _worst possible thing to do_ after the attack.

"Be quiet, you're all going to make me deaf before I'm 40," grumbled Aizawa-Sensei, really jamming his thumb deep into his ear, "Sit down and accept the fact that the Festival is cancelled. Move on, you'll all get your chances in the future."

The students who got up reluctantly sat down, still grumbling about the cancellation while Engine-legs' fingers continuously tapped against his desk. Katsuki had more pride than that, to just blow up about that in front of a teacher. What bullshit.

Whatever, he could deal with it, as long as it wasn't because of that missing-person crap.

Then he'd blow up the fucker responsible for his losses.

"Now," Aizawa-Sensei rose from the ground and shakily picked up a piece of chalk. The man then hastily collided the chalk with the blackboard and began scribbling kanji and numbers, "Let's pick up where we left on in Algebraic equations."

Katsuki deeply,  _deeply_  exhaled the moment the class let out another series of whines.

Why did today have to be the worst fucking experience in his life?

* * *

**Izuku**

"Aaaand, that's the last of the barrels," Izuku panted as he set down the wooden object with surprising ease. He'd been working for a while now, if the sweat on his brow meant anything. He quickly wiped the salty liquid off of his creased forehead and leaned upon the solid oak cart he had just loaded.

"Thanks for the help, kid," Petra gave him a clap on the shoulder and moved closer to him. She discreetly whispered, "You see the Captain over there?"

Petra gestured behind her with her thumb, being careful not to alert the Captain. The man himself seemed to be preoccupied with cleaning his blades which, from what Izuku had seen, he has been cleaning for the last thirty minutes straight.

Petra continued her whispering ('Gossip?', Izuku pondered.), "He's been watching you for a while now. Don't let the cleaning fool you, it's a red herring. From the quality work you've been doing, he's probably impressed, even if he doesn't exactly  _show it."_

"Erm, thanks?," Izuku found himself standing awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck while trying to find a sufficient response,"I, um, guess?"

_'Kami, these people are all so bizarre, even the seemingly normal ones.'_

"I wouldn't peg us as bizarre, there are people in the military who are  _way_  stranger than us," Petra responded nonchalantly, "Take Commander Pixis, for example."

"I–" Izuku squeaked, "I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"Quite loudly, actually," Petra stated, trying, and failing, to keep a straight face on. She composed herself hastily and began to fiddle with the odd contraption around her waist, loosening all of the knots and starting to head towards a rather populated section of the camp. Petra turned around rather quickly and gestured to him, "It seems like we're going to leave for the wall soon, I'd better get my supplies. If you want, you can come with me so I can keep and eye on you and so Oluo doesn't whine later on about you running off."

Izuku nodded as he began to trek behind the soldier, mostly keeping his eyes on her back in order not to lose her in the buzzing crowd of green-cloaked men and women. There was a light haze of kicked up dirt in the air, a result of the endless trampling of men and women for the last few hours.

The place itself was rather odd, as he had learned from Petra. The female soldier had given away a lot of information about where they were, perhaps unintentionally. Apparently, this was a military outpost of some sort. She mentioned that when they abandoned Wall Maria (he still had  _no idea_  what she meant by Wall Maria), the outpost was deserted and the supplies within it were abandoned.

The two continued to dive deeper into the crowd, striding forward until they hit a break in the stream of people. In the calm area were a few people handing out items of various sizes and looks to other soldiers. Izuku saw shiny, metallic gas canisters being exchanged as well as  _blades_ of all things.

One of the men passing along blades made eye contact with Izuku's chaperone and immediately handed her a stack of blades and two gas canisters. Petra murmured her thanks towards the man and broke away from the supply depot, a slightly confused Izuku in tow.

"Why do you have  _blades?_  And a  _gas tank?_ " Izuku's imagination went wild, "I mean, maybe you soldiers utilize fire in your fighting strategy... or maybe it has something to do with those belts all of you wear? It could also be that you all have Quirks that use gas tanks as fuel or maybe..."

He went off mumbling to himself about all the possibilities behind the combination of swords and a gas tank, Petra staring at him with an uncomfortable amount of concern.

"Please, stop that... whatever it is you're doing," she tried to make a stop signal with her hand, but was ultimately overwhelmed by the gas canisters jumbled in her arms. She settled for a brief explanation, "They're for fighting Titans. The blades are for cutting into them, the gas is used in order to get to their vulnerable spot."

_'What kind of vulnerable spot takes gas tanks to get to?!'_

Izuku felt compelled to ask  _where_  this vulnerable spot was, but he had an eerie feeling that since the female soldier was stocking up on materials to get to  _said vulnerable spot_ , he'd probably see for himself. He nervously fiddled around with his fingers, rather distressed about the thought of encountering the giant being that nearly made him a blood stain on the forest floor.

A piercing voice jutted him out of his thoughts. Numerous heads turned to address the source of the voice, a blonde man dressed in the uniform green cloak and foreign insignia riding atop a chestnut tinted horse. The magnificent beast seemed to be on edge, huffing through the man's initial call to attention.

"Listen here, Scouts!" the man hollered loud enough to catch the attention of the bee-like soldiers humming around the camp. Once the sound soft breeze and the rustling trees became the only thing that could be heard, the man gave a curt nod, seemingly in approval, and began to speak, "We leave this site in fifteen minutes! Finish your business and make sure to refuel on supplies before we take off. I will  _not_  have any men left behind due to sheer incompetence!"

The paused crowd resumed its movement, speeding around even more rapidly than before. Petra seemed to have caught the fever that the rest of the crowd had, becoming slightly antsy and tugging Izuku along to get him moving at her speed. Once they managed to break through the crowd once more, Petra finally paused for a moment.

"Sorry about that, but when we're running on a time limit, the Scouts usually get much more serious," Petra didn't even need to give her reasoning, Izuku had just lived through the Tokyo-like bustle of the military crowd. She decided to change the subject, fastening the gas canisters and blades she had gotten to her belt contraption in the meantime, "Ready to shove off? I was told that you'd be riding in the rear flank of the formation. I'll try to get you there before Oluo can complain about losing you."

"Ah, okay," murmured a mesmerized Izuku, thumb glued to his lips while looking at the strange contraption with an unsettling sense of curiosity. He looked up at her and gave a meek smile, "Sorry for sounding a bit out of it, but that machine that you're using, refueling?, is something completely new to me."

"Hmm? This?" Petra pointed to the metal contraption holding steel cables and the gas tanks in circular slots. Izuku nodded and silently hoped for an answer, which he received, "This is called ODM gear, which is short for Omni-Directional Movement gear. I'll be frank, I hope you don't have to see me or anyone else here use these today."

He raised an eyebrow in question, but Petra shrugged the unasked question off. Instead, she hustled him over to an anxiously waiting Oluo, the man in question repeatedly stamping his leg on the ground with his arms crossed tightly.

"Hmph, took you long enough to bring the brat back," Oluo huffed, his chest puffing up in sync with his spat out words. Oluo roughly grabbed Izuku from Petra's care, the soldier herself giving him a pitiful glance and briskly walking away to avoid the older man's rampage. "You better have everything in order, Greenie. We're just about ready to shove off, so get in the back of the tow."

 _'Greenie?'_ Izuku pondered as he did as the man asked, noting the horse that was buckled to the helm of the wooden vehicle. He looked back at Oluo once settling inside the wooden container, the man giving him a harsh stare but nodding in approval regardless.

"I, ah, see your tongue is better?" Izuku asked in a weak attempt to make amends with the man who he had caused much unintentional, and oddly tongue-related, pain.

"Shut up and listen for the signal to go off," Oluo snarled out, moving to mount the horse roped to the vehicle.

"I can't believe that I have to be watching some  _stupid brat..."_ were the last words uttered by the strange man as he walked out of earshot.

Izuku was left to wait for a short while, as if he hadn't been doing enough of that already, and took the time to examine how his wound had healed now that he wasn't hindered by cuffed hands.

He had known that his arm was horribly broken, as well as his leg as far as he could remember. It was odd that neither of the appendages had bothered him during his time here and after prodding and inspecting the bones in his limbs, he realized that they looked as if they hadn't been broken in the first place. It was  _more than_ concerning that such a serious wound had healed so fast, especially since he couldn't have survived more than a  _week_  without proper nourishment.

In fact, he had more than half a mind than to question how he went from being stuck in a tree to being underground. He wasn't even  _hungry_  when he initially woke up, hundreds of meters below the earth. It was a question he'd tucked in the back of his head, until now at least.

The only memories he had after the  _tree incident_ , something he was willing to never talk about to another soul, were those of: a flickering flame, the robust orange color dancing before his eyes, a slight stinging sensation in his left arm, and the unsettling wave of nausea that glanced over him after the sting. He found it terrifying that he couldn't associate a name with the incident, let a alone a face. It was as if everything that happened between the tree incident and him waking up in a cellar was a blur.

But, although whatever may have happened during that period of time, his first priority was still to get back home, wherever that was compared to this fresh hell. Maybe after, even if he could be given the time to investigate, could he actually think about the event that both saved his life and sent it hurtling towards a bizarre experience.

Suddenly, a shot rang out among the crowds of green-cloaked soldiers, causing all people to briefly pause and then rush to various horses and wagons. With a light screech, the wagon Izuku was in began to lurch forward in line with the horse towing it.

Izuku moved to grab onto the edge of the wagon, in order to keep himself from sliding to the edge of the tow.

He decided that none of than mattered right now, only getting home from wherever these people were taking him.

He would fight tooth and nail to get back to his home, his friends.

His  _life._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woops, was it crap? I bet 'twas crap. *Sigh* I'll do the edits soon, but I'm honestly disappointed with myself for waiting so long to publish another chapter.
> 
> Readers, dear readers, do me a favor and leave a review. Especially when you notice blaring mistakes that are probably horrific.
> 
> Idk when the next chapter will be, I want to post it soon. Knowing my schedule though, it'll probably be until December.
> 
> To reviewers, expect a PM from me answering questions and/or thanking you for criticism.
> 
> See ya'll I guess.


	5. At Ultimatum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know: I suck, a lot.
> 
> My update schedule is such a hot mess that this took five months longer than I anticipated for this to take. So, take my hot trash, I guess.
> 
> I hope to get the next chapter done in a month or so, but that's probably a dream due to my finals and my APs hitting me this week.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Warnings: Not much, just some mild violence, cursing, and suicidal/self-deprecating thoughts.
> 
> Enjoy.

 

_'Words'_ = Thoughts

_Italics_  = Emphasized text

・・・・

The continuous pounding of hooves on the soft, malleable earth resounded through Midoriya's body incessantly, as it had been for the last few hours. The sky was a light blue with clouds sprinkled about in a weak haze, and the woods that they had been occupying were replaced with fairly clear fields with only a few trees, a whole lot more similar to the ones at home, Izuku noted, dotted around the solid green.

The cart he had been loaded onto was solid, but it was not at all resistant to the ground's natural curves and ditches. At times, he'd suck in a breath to have the wind knocked out of him when the horse driving the vehicle protested against its driver's demands. Utter boredom began to sink in after a while, and he fretted about returning to that panicked state he had been when they were still in the encampment.

Given the circumstances, he definitely did not want to make more of a scene than he already had. He could only imagine how much worse this situation could have been if the Captain were more strict, or if Petra hadn't offered to help him out. No, no; he just has to focus on the present and future, not what happened. Not how  _this situation_  happened.

He felt a sigh wheeze out at that thought. It would be nearly impossible to avoid the subject, but he needed to give it his best shot.

He needed to take his mind off this entire mess.

So he resolved to talk to Oluo.

He leaned over to the man in question and gave him a gentle tap on the shoulder, as to not startle him or the horse he was steering. The man's neck craned backward in an instant as he shot an accusatory glare at the young man. Oluo snapped his head back into its rightful position but motioned for him to speak using a slothful hand.

"How lo–" he paused before he could even finish the sentence, frowning to himself. He could barely be heard over the meretricious hammering of the stallion in the front end of the tow. He opted to holler rather than speak, "How long does it take to pull back!?"

Oluo was plainly straining to hear his words while multitasking with the horse. The soldier took a short eternity to respond.

"Usually less than a day," his voice rang out over the yowls of the wind and the horse's long strides, "Shouldn't take much longer! After all, this scouting mission was meant to hug the wall's perimeter."

Izuku nodded abstractedly in response, still unsure what these walls were exactly and dubious about whether or not to ask what they were like in the first place. His lips remained pursed shut in an attempt to stow his curiosity away from the easily angered man, but he finally relented to his mind's will when he realized that he could be  _further_  punished for his unfamiliarity with this place's heritage and traditions.

He unsealed his squinched lips to satiate his lack of knowledge only to be met with a trembling seism from the ground. These quakes persisted, occurring in an almost step-like fashion until the ground below them was vibrating with frighteningly strong force. Oluo's disposition changed almost immediately upon the change in the quake's strength, becoming stiffer and more oriented on traveling rapidly. The man was in such a haste that Izuku could scarcely maintain his traction inside the tow, the wood being too suave to create a decent grit.

The only object keeping him from billowing out of the tug were the fringes of the thing itself. They were so dense that it was nearly impossible to slide his hands across, let alone grasp his entire hand around the rim of the cart. Although it was an arduous task, Izuku began scaling the tow to get closer to the horse pulling the vehicle. Oluo was his singular lifeline in this increasingly heated situation, and he was convinced that if he didn't communicate with the man in front, he would surely be split off from the large group of  _experienced_  soldiers.

Either by falling out of the vehicle at top speed or by the source of those relentless earthquakes, he wasn't willing to find out.

"Oluo!" Izuku called over the fortissimo pounding of the land, clutching scrupulously to the front of the tow, "What  _is_ that?!"

"Damn, damn, damn," Oluo groaned to himself, yanking the horse's reigns even more intensely than before, " _Greenie_ , I'm  _not_  equipped to handle this right now.  _That_  is a Titan and both of our  _lives_  are dependent on this damn horse!"

Oluo kept beating the horse with its reigns, shoving an occasional boot into the wretched creature's abdomen to really get it pacing. Izuku felt himself wince every time the man's heel met the horse's saute skin, leaving a darker bruise mark every time the shoe left its rind. Unfortunately for the steed, it was as bound to the tow as the tow was to it, and there was no sign of escape.

"Aren't you  _supposed_  to be prepared for this!?" Izuku hissed in a moment of frustration, perhaps the culmination of his utter uselessness in this situation and the increasingly desperate whinnies of the horse-in-abuse at the moment. He noticed that his tone was unjustly harsh and reworded it quickly, "I– I mean, isn't this what that rush was for? Aren't you supposed to  _fight_  those things?"

" _Greenie,"_  the soldier growled out in annoyance, seemingly itching with exasperation. He was missing something here, but he wasn't aware of what that  _something_  is. The man gestured to himself in an impatient manner, "Do I  _look_  like I have my equipment on me?!"

Izuku was flabbergasted at that moment. It didn't make sense, none of it made any sense!

"You're supposed to!" he shrieked out at the man, incredulity etched across his face for the world to see.

"I'm an  _escort_ , kid!" the man seemingly screeched in response, his voice getting almost as worked up as when Levi had indirectly insulted his work ethic. A grimace spread on his face and the horse suffered further injury as his strikes became tougher, "I don't have  _gear_ , and even if I did, you'd be done for without a  _driver_. It wouldn't matter if I killed the damn thing, which I  _could_ , because I'd flunk the one job I have!"

"I  _really_ think that shouldn't be your priori–" Izuku barked out in response, only to be cut off when a new quake rumbled through the earth, sending the cart and its steed hurtling upwards.

Before they could even make contact with the ground, a large figure wandered into view, its lifeless eyes catching onto both he and Oluo within seconds while its smile remained nonchalant and ceaseless. Its balded head remained trained on their large and obvious tow, not even budging when the horse swerved in reaction to the beast's uncomfortable proximity.

The chaos only began when a single rider near the flank called out,

"A Fifteen-meter Titan, type Deviant, approaching the rear!"

・・・・

Katsuki's mood progressively dipped down throughout the first few hours of the school day.

All he could  _hear_  was the 'missing person' business, as if it was goddamn  _news_  anymore. Instead, it had somehow metamorphosed into a bunch of theories, which, of course, were the most fucking radical things he's ever heard in his life. While Class 1-A's suspicions were relatively reserved, the rest of the school was buzzing with excitement and he swore he heard a few theories about 'government kidnapping' or some shit like that in the hallway.

By the time lunch rolled around, he wasn't even sure if he was sane anymore. The entire class was basically swimming in conspiracy theories and people started to form crowds around where 1-A students usually sat. Including him, of course.

It was that entire shitty morning that had led up to  _this._  Him, the unexcelled champion of all of the hero classes combined, hoisting a plate of spicy sashimi above a crowd of rabid students. Not even Lunch Rush's impeccable cooking was safe from the mob of jealous and nosey teens. He kept moving like that through the cafeteria, getting an occasional hand or  _face_  shoved into his personal space. The questions were neverending, as though these losers didn't have enough to yap about beforehand. He was a stone wall throughout the entire juggle through the cafeteria, the only thing on his mind is the plate that was teetering on the edge of life and death, only a few inches from falling to its demise.

It was at the point when he realized that he was closer to the room's exit to the hallway than the seating area that he decided to fuck off the with the concept of having a normal lunch and just enjoy his meal,  _in peace_ , in 1-A's classroom. At least he would be safe from the mob  _there_.

He continued to shove himself through the crowd, albeit, more aggressively this time. He managed to reach the double doors in record time and promptly slammed them shut as soon as he reached the other side. He speed-walked with his sashimi, he didn't want to drop the damn thing after all the bullshit he went through to get it, and kept his eyes trained on the ground. If a single person made  _any eye contact with him_ , he was going to make them a sorry son of a bitch. Too much shit for one morning.

He just wanted to eat his spicy sashimi for god's sake.

A quick glance at what seemed like the tenth turn down the hallway showed the signboard above his classroom, a beaming "1-A" and no signal of any more whiny students. He slammed his free hand onto the doorknob, angrily twisted it open, marched through the oversized-as-hell thing, and then blasted it shut. He took the first open seat by the door, no reason to walk all the way to his own seat, and sighed in relief upon the discovery that his sashimi was unscathed.

Now he could enjoy his meal  _alone_.

Until he realized he  _wasn't._

"Bakugou!" the irritatingly  _commanding_  voice of Engine-legs thundered at him, "It is irresponsible to abuse UA's equipment so! The students –  _heroes_ – before us took meticulous care of its utilities! It is a disrespect t–"

Katsuki slid around in his seat and noticed that in addition to Engine-legs, Round-face was also present in the room. Both were seated towards the back-end of the room and enjoying lunch as well, but one of them just had to pipe up. No peace and quiet in his entire damn  _life_.

"Shut up and let me eat my lunch," was Katsuki's sole answer to Engine-leg's rant. He wouldn't believe for a second that neither of them was bothered by the rest of the student body. He shut them up with this, "I'm sick of the fucking students, and I'm sick of talking to the losers who are making conspiracy shit about our class. I just want my  _lunch_ , dammit."

A brief look at Engine-legs suggested that he was ready to launch into another rant, but he was quickly cut off when Round-face tried to mitigate the conversation. Oh boy.

"Hey, um, I  _get_ that. " It was painful and sounded like she was stretching out for words. He didn't blame her; he was one of the most intimidating people out there and he knew it. He  _reveled_  in it. She continued in her pitiful attempt at calming everyone down, "But could we all just calm down a bit and talk about the obvious  _something_  that's wrong here?"

He scoffed at that; there was clearly something fucking wrong, "What? You mean the fucking theories that are flying around? I've heard enough of that shit for a lifetime, Round-face."

Her face shifted at the name; he wasn't sure what the expression turned into, but it faded away in an instant and was replaced by the Deku-branded "Face of Determination" real quick.

"No,  _more_  specific than that," she egged on, almost giving him an aneurysm with the guessing game. He shot a glare that expressed his opinion and it seemed enough to point her in the right direction. She gave it up, "Deku  _kinda_  hasn't been here  _all morning_."

"And?" Katsuki wasn't getting the fucking point, and it was really twisting his skin. Deku wasn't an enigma, and he sure as hell could imagine the little maggot staying at home after getting a run-in with a villain. The shrimp was weak, even if he held onto his confident façade while facing Katsuki. Midoriya-san probably wasn't helping him either; she was as paranoid as her son. The woman probably kept him hostage at home after the USJ, just being the same woman Katsuki remembered from when he  _used_  to be friends with her son.

"Ah, I mean–" she stuttered out at his harsh response, "Aizawa-sensei clearly mentioned a missing person and I thought that the coincidence was too  _uncomfortable_  to really ignore…"

"Alright, dammit," Katsuki muttered under his breath, catching Uraraka's hanging sentence by a threat and re-weaving it in his own, coarse-mannered way. He laid it out straight, "If I can somehow get some fucking  _proof_  that Deku isn't dead, or some shit, because I  _know_  that's what you're leading me on about, will the  _both_  of you leave this room and  _stay out_  for the rest of my damn lunch period?"

Almost in a heartbeat, Round-face accepted the offer with a nod and dragged a slightly confused Engine Legs out of the room.

Katsuki huffed; he could finally eat his Sashimi in peace.

He eagerly took a seat on the closest desk, not giving a single  _damn_ anymore, and waited a few paltry seconds just in case somebody decided to  _suddenly_  barge in and ask for more useless stuff.

Deeming it safe, he finally nabbed the food with his chopsticks and began to stuff his mouth full.

It wasn't spicy enough, but he didn't really care enough to go out into that hallway  _hell_.

He gulped down a few chopsticks' worths of bleak sashimi and shuddered.

' _Nothing was worth going back into that hell_.'

・・・・

Izuku's world stood at a standstill, the rhythmic scrape of metal on metal pervading the utter silence that overtook everything. There were constant bursts of air that puffed around him, but he couldn't see anything but the beast in front of him. The giant – Titan – glowered silently, permanently crouched on the balls of its feet while its ears, immense in size and subhuman in shape, constantly realigned themselves with the direction of the endless scratching of metal.

There were only him and the beast; it only saw  _him_. There was no doubt about it, it's gaze was unwavering and immutable, and its eyes, a deceptively  _innocent_  honey-brown, bored into his own. Its pupils, small and slit-like, and its towering, lean body were enough to ground him to his seat.

Petrified.  _That_  is what it had done to him; he was nothing more than a paralyzed insect to it.

A meal waiting to be devoured in a bloodbath, not even willing to raise a hand to fight.

_Useless_ , a meek voice murmured to him in the darkest recesses of his mind. He desperately wanted to prove the voice wrong, to  _show_  that he could be as good as– that he could be–

He shook himself out of those thoughts quickly; they were more  _useless_  than himse– than what he  _could_  be doing, and he wasn't going to lose without a fight. All Might wouldn't let it happen, and Kacchan wouldn't do that either; he wouldn't do it even if it cost him his  _life_. He'd keep pushing and pushing, moving like the trucking bulldozer that he is–

What's to stop Izuku from doing  _just that?_

' _Nothing,'_  he thinks, eyes gleaming with unshed tears – ' _when did they get there?'_ – and mind determined to conquer the creature that had frozen him in dread.

The world snapped into color, the tunnel vision between him and the Titan blotting away with each new ray of light that appeared in his vision. The slice of metal on metal grew louder as tiny figures danced in the air around the crouched monster. It hadn't broken eye contact yet.

His hand was already in the air, middle finger tucked behind the thumb and ready to snap out in a burst of fury. He hadn't even noticed it rise. The hand was a wretched white, the color of blood barely tainting the flesh due to his unbudging grasp on the side of the tow.

His fingers were perched against one another, the tension making him primed to snap out at any second. They were shaking uncontrollably – those dark, human thoughts came to bite at him again, making him doubt and  _doubt_  – and the raw friction in his hand was burning him up. He felt like he was drowning in heat.

And then, without another breath wasted, he flicked.

・・・・

The beast had been struck, but not by  _him_. No, he could tell in the way that it's blank eyes dilated and finally broke the choking eye-lock on him.

The beast stopped huffing and staring when a decisive smack of metal clanged behind it; as if someone had cut it down before it could act. Right before his very eyes, it began to fall akin to the way a tree would.

And then the tempest struck.

The Titan's body had flung back unexpectedly, it's body being violently jerked backward as Izuku's Quirk sent a robust block of wind its way. At first, it seemed as if there was no harm done, but the sounds of metal on metal began to roar once more and the tiny figures that had swarmed the creature before –  _'like bees,'_  he thought – quickly dove away, being blown like puppets on strings by the wind he had made. They were so desperate to ground themselves, and it couldn't have been a coincidence that they were near the creature…

Gears clicked into place as quickly as they began turning, and the unsavory thoughts dove back into their usual spots.

Those were  _humans_ , and he had almost sacrificed them for the sake of killing the Titan. The thoughts crawled in like insects, and the crippling doubt began to pour in. He had almost– if he had gone only a second earlier–

"Hey, kid!" Oluo shouted into his ear with an almost refreshing amount of concern. Did he deserve that? If he had known –  _'but he doesn't'_  – then he wouldn't… he couldn't– "Reel that mind back in there for god's sake!"

Oluo roughly grabbed him by the scruff of his tattered shirt – UA's costuming department would be ashamed at the way he was taking care of it – and shifted him around to face him. Oluo's eyes darted behind him – where the  _corpse_  was – and back to his own emerald-green pair. It was clear that Izuku had never experienced something like this, and Oluo – only doing what was  _right_  – wanted to shield him from the gruesome sight.

A pallid laugh escaped his throat, coming out as a loose gurgle. Him? Why would he need shielding?

He had almost done so much more damage.

Oluo took the choked sound as a form of panic, either that or the inevitable breakdown that Izuku knew he was going to have. Because, at the end of the day, he still didn't know how to use One for All correctly. He still didn't know how to help without hurting others.

He still didn't know how to be a hero, and that was finally beginning to crack the foundations of what has held him up so far. Sturdy arms clutched at his shoulders, shaking him vehemently in order to awaken him. He just… couldn't.

Why bother trying when all you've worked for could have been for  _nothing_  within the span of a few seconds? Had he missed, had he timed things  _differently_ …

Well, there'd be nothing of value to come back to. What should matter is that he didn't, and he wouldn't have…

But it all came back to the hypotheticals, didn't it? His logic was bitter, and he knew that eventually, one day, he would be met with another situation too similar to the one he had just faced.

What mattered, then, was what he would do. There was no sense of foresight, and that scared him now.

It terrified him.

He heard an ever-so-distant voice call out and ask him if he was okay as if anybody could be  _alright_  after that.

"I'm fine." He replied, his voice laced with a harrowing equanimity.

・・・・

They had stopped for only a short bit after the Titan had been cut down, and he had finally begun to notice the searing pain in his fingers after the snap. They were bruised, marred, and outright violet from the strangling pain of shattering bones, but his unreasonable pain tolerance had pushed him through.

It seemed like nothing in comparison to how he's hurt himself before, for the sake of others and himself.

The transitory break between recovering from the attack, in which Oluo wouldn't stop fussing over him as a mother hen would, and trucking on forward was a mere blip in time. One second to the next, and they were already bumping along once more in the rickety, old tow.

He'd decided not to share the news of his broken fingers, as they seemed rather trivial and inexplicable at the moment. He had a feeling that they wouldn't understand how he had managed to hurt them so thoroughly – the purplish abrasion covered the entire middle finger  _and_  thumb – and that they probably wouldn't appreciate the story he had to tell about said injury.

No, for people that used horses to get along and strange wire traps to shoot themselves into the air – Petra's words made  _leagues_  more sense now that he had seen the contraptions work with his own eyes –  _and_  slay Titans, they probably wouldn't appreciate him talking about Quirks. In fact, Quirks were another thing he had noticed to be odd in this place.

Not a single person seemed to display a Quirk, not even one of the mutant variety.

It was odd, but he couldn't go around making such assumptions. After all, there's still a good ten to twenty percent of Earth's population that hadn't a Quirk at all. Maybe it's a small society of Quirkless people? Then again, where did all this  _space_  come from? How come none of them had really asked about his  _own_  Quirk?

No, he didn't think that that warping villain –  _'Kurogiri,'_ the bitter voice in his head remarks – could actually take him to a place so far, with such a  _vast_  amount of space, and still have Japanese-speaking people within a couple of miles. It was all too peachy, too coincidental…

The most peculiar part about this was that he had no idea of who they were,  _what_  exactly they were fighting against, and little to no clue about what they wanted from him.

It was contradictory to his constantly theorizing personality, but he  _needed_  to make assumptions, large ones that stepped so much farther than he was comfortable with. A pallid chuckle choked out from him, lost to the roaring of the wind as the tow delved forward into the unknown.

He wasn't quite sure whether or not All Might would be proud of him for finally letting go of his mental boundaries. He wasn't quite sure that he would be upset either, with him making such broad presumptions about people who he hadn't even known. He'd almost killed them for god's sake.

_Almost_. That's all it was though: an almost. It was a reminder, but not a haunting memory. Not yet, at least.

If he assumed that these people were completely Quirkless, which was likely based off of his observations over the last few hours, –  _'unless they have Quirks that can affect only others, then my plans may be for nothing'_  – then it was likely that they were a society of Quirkless people that had either managed to evade being noticed, which was impossible in it of itself, or had been simply been living on the land  _the whole time_. None of it made sense, and that was all affirmed by the fact that he had never heard of the Walls, Titans, or the Scouts before in his life. This couldn't be the past, mere history, because information about the pre-Quirk era was documented  _extensively_  compared to the recent jumbled centuries of adjusting to superpowered humans.

The future? Had the villain even  _possessed_  a power such as this? No, no. That didn't seem plausible either; then he would have just sent everyone in the USJ back to some unimportant time period for them to waste away in whatever hell existed in the future or past. That left an even more outlandish idea left, but even that was an abyss of unknown information.

' _Possibly, if there's no other reasonable option, another world? Another galaxy, universe?_

_A new dimension!?'_

There were too many possibilities sitting at his fingertips, ready to be plucked and used for his ideas. Nothing was plausible, which led to even more room for dangerous interpretation. There wasn't much to go with, and he needed more information.

Again, Oluo was his only source of information, and subtlety was never quite his area; he had All Might merchandise filling his room to the brim to show for that.

He finally wandered out of his cave of thoughts and began to tap Oluo lightly on the shoulder once again. The man seemed frazzled and did not respond after the first few pats. There was no hostility in his actions, but Izuku clasped the man's shoulder with a vigorous intensity.

Oluo, having been completely unfazed by Izuku's impatient gesture, nodded slightly to the side, as to give him a mere glimpse of his eyes to show some semblance of eye-contact, and raised a hand to let him speak.

"Oluo," Izuku started, licking his lips in a cheerless discomfort while trying to explain himself in the least suspicious manner possible. He continued shakily, "What exactly is the date today?"

The man was quiet for a brief moment before eliciting a soft chuckle that Izuku had strained to hear. He stopped abruptly, eyes darting behind him to meet Izuku's face and dashing back to the path ahead, and began to speak softly. Izuku strained to pick up his inaudible words.

"Just a kid, that's it. So much, and he's still going on about the little things," Oluo said, almost wistfully, as he continued to keep his eyes on the scenery in front. He increased in volume, as to respond, "It's about the twelfth day into March, 848. If you're asking about the specific date, I'd probably be a day off, time twisting and all when you're out here." Oluo began to chide him in a joking manner, the cleverness of the words given away by his barely contained wheezes, "Don't tell me that you've never heard of a year now, I've already answered enough stupid questions in one day!"

It wasn't very funny, but Izuku gave him a slight chuckle out of mere gratitude for answering the question without a hitch. He gave a small nod of understanding and turned around smoothly, facing the tail of the tow.

Everything was in tatters and pieces, just waiting to be put back together. It was like a puzzle, Izuku reasoned. He had more information to work with now, and it could potentially make sense if he could draw more from someone else.

He was fairly sure that Oluo was catching on. Either that or he would simply start joking around with him permanently; it was not something he particularly  _wanted_.

Still, he couldn't ask many people about this: he didn't know anybody here and, again, he was the opposite of subtle. It would be a nightmare, an absolute trainwreck for him and his mental state.

He exhaled slowly and gathered his jumbled nerves together; if he was going to get through this, then he would have to work to get the answers he needs. It doesn't matter if there are bumps in the road, so long as he can figure his way back home.

' _Right, that's what it's all about…_

_Home'_

Everyone was waiting for him, and he  _cannot_  afford to let them down this time. He's already struck out once, leaving his friends,  _All Might_ , and his  _mother_  in the dust, but he wasn't going to be impulsive this time.

He just needs to think it through, and it'll all work out in the end. A soft smile overtook the mixed expression on his face, and he squeezed the tow tenderly.

He wasn't going to give up, not yet. He may have faltered – paralyzed by the giant and its mute gaze – but he was going to persevere.

It wasn't a choice, he realized.

He needed to persevere.

"Hey, Greenie," Oluo called out, giving him a light smack on the head with the back of his hand. The older man pointed to his front, starting up again, "Welcome to the outside of Wall Rose."

Izuku leaned backward and grasped onto the saddle where Oluo rode, getting a better view, and he saw a sight to behold:

An ivory-hued wall the size of skyscrapers in Musutafu stood tall, a shining beacon in the sea of fluttering green grass that dwarfed in comparison to the sheer immensity of the structure. Small ant-like figures danced around the top of the vast wall, running back and forth whilst shouting and yelling. Titans clawed at where grass met stone, but they were aimless, unable to do much against the monstrosity of a wall, unable to touch the people that lived peacefully inside. It was–

_A symbol of peace_.

There was a ball of tension that just melted away on sight of the new destination, and it was as if all of his problems could be pushed away for now. It was refreshing, to say the least.

Abruptly, a bland-colored tarp landed on Izuku's lap, giving a soft plunk as it made contact with his tattered blue pants. Izuku held up the roll of tarp, carefully folded and spotless, and gave Oluo a quizzical look. The man nodded:

"We're heading inside, and it's… best not to attract the attention of the townsfolk." Oluo grumbled a bit, his voice slightly humming in his throat as his bass voice droned on. He rubbed the horse's head softly, giving it a pat, and stared on ahead at the gates that were beginning to jangle with the sound of chains and metal, "They're distrustful people, and the Scouts aren't in a position to explain the appearance of a kid like you to the entire population. Just trust me and put the tarp on the back, it'll be alright Greenie."

Izuku bobbed his head forward and stumbled to his feet, wobbling a few times and clutching onto the side of the tow for a bit of stability. Barely balanced on the balls of his heel, he draped the colorless sheet over the back and secured it on the generous quantity of holes and wedges of the tow. He slid down, slightly uncomfortable, underneath the low draping tent it made underneath.

It was like a blanket fort, and the childish part of him grew elated. He ran his lightly calloused fingers against the hem of the tarp, lifting it up a bit and wedging his hand underneath to give himself a small window to the outside world.

Now, he knew, it was time to wait–

To wait and see what was in store for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you all next month, I guess?
> 
> This chapter was like a road-block in my head, so it was kind of hard to write a chapter that did absolutely nothing while setting up for the cool stuff that will go down next time. I wanted to plan this better, but my scheduling turned this into the neverending story of prep.
> 
> I'll try harder for you guys, but school is my only obstacle right now.
> 
> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Check out my tumblr for updates on my status and chapters: [here](https://corgisaremysoul.tumblr.com/)


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